[astrohip]

How We Roll, a new multi-cam sitcom from CBS. Premiered tonight, March 31, 2022. Stars Pete Holmes, Katie Lowes, Chi McBride. Based on the real life of professional bowler Tom Smallwood.

From Rotten Tomatoes:
When Tom, a stoic Midwest husband and dad, gets laid off from a car assembly line, he makes the extraordinary decision to provide for his family by following his dream of becoming a professional bowler. As a skilled player, Tom knows that in bowling no matter what you do with the first ball, you get another one to make it right -- the ultimate second chance. Keeping that in mind, Tom begins his new career with the loving okay from wife and the unfaltering support of Archie, his mentor and the proud owner of Archie's Lanes: Home of the Curly Fry. It remains to be seen if Tom will strike it big on the pro bowler circuit, but the pins are set and he's taking his second shot.

I thought it was okay. Shows some promise. Sitcom pilots are tough, and while this one at least didn't stink, neither did it rise above the occasion. Needs to be funnier, and not quite so formulaic. We'll see if E2 can deliver.

 

[Steveknj]

How We Roll, a new multi-cam sitcom from CBS. Premiered tonight, March 31, 2022. Stars Pete Holmes, Katie Lowes, Chi McBride. Based on the real life of professional bowler Tom Smallwood.

From Rotten Tomatoes:
When Tom, a stoic Midwest husband and dad, gets laid off from a car assembly line, he makes the extraordinary decision to provide for his family by following his dream of becoming a professional bowler. As a skilled player, Tom knows that in bowling no matter what you do with the first ball, you get another one to make it right -- the ultimate second chance. Keeping that in mind, Tom begins his new career with the loving okay from wife and the unfaltering support of Archie, his mentor and the proud owner of Archie's Lanes: Home of the Curly Fry. It remains to be seen if Tom will strike it big on the pro bowler circuit, but the pins are set and he's taking his second shot.

I thought it was okay. Shows some promise. Sitcom pilots are tough, and while this one at least didn't stink, neither did it rise above the occasion. Needs to be funnier, and not quite so formulaic. We'll see if E2 can deliver.

I missed this (I'll go back and watch on P+) but I liked Pete Holmes in his HBO series and this time rather than following his dream to become a stand up comedian he's following his dream to become a bowler. I like the premise, but usually this type of show doesn't work on broadcast TV. Hopefully it will. I'll give it a couple of episodes because i like Pete, but I'm not optimistic.

 

[terpfan1980]

I wanted to catch this but didn't realize that it was premiering last night. I have set up a season pass to catch future episodes, but will go back and try to catch the pilot via Paramount+

 

[madscientist]

It was very very meh for me. I will, as usual, give it a few episodes to gel. But it's not "same night watching" for me for sure.

 

[Tony_T]

I like Pete’s standup, and his HBO series Crashing was good, but why does almost every CBS comedy look the same? (wife and kids, nosey inlaws or neighbor that pop-in, laugh track, etc…). I‘ll give this a few more episodes because of Pete.

 

[cwoody222]

Pete Holmes is better than this.

This show is just bad.

 

[TonyD79]

Another Raymond knock off. Uneven pilot. I will give it a couple of weeks. When I have nothing else to watch.

 

[Steveknj]

I also thought it was meh. I like Pete and Crashing was great. I like the idea that it's based on a true story (and will probably at some point research the guy it's based on to perhaps get some context. It's a pilot so I'll give it a little more time because of Pete and the bowling aspect (I like bowling).

As for why are all CBS comedies set up similarly? Well given the success of them over the years, why not? Family sitcoms are the bedrock of TV comedy since the 1950s (and before that on radio). They are usually easy to write, are basically safe and non-controversial and the good ones are ratings gold. I too like stuff that's different (and NBC always seems to have more avant garde sitcoms on broadcast TV), but I enjoy a well done family sitcom as well. People these days always tend to mock anything that's not "edgy". I honestly don't get that.

 

[Mike Lang]

We sat through it but weren't impressed with the pilot.

 

[Tony_T]

“Raymond” was great, and still holds up (I watch re-runs when “flipping“, and even have some old DVD’s). The cast is what did it for “Raymond” (the writing was also very good). While I can see why CBS would want to repeat successes of the past, it sometimes is hard to do when a bar was set too high.
It would be better if they didn’t follow a “formula“ too closely (was a pop-in mother-in-law really necessary for this show?)

If not for Pete Holmes, I would have canceled the 1Pass already.

 

[terpfan1980]

I finally streamed the pilot episode last night. It was OK. Not great, but OK. Good enough to keep a season pass. It may just que up a few episodes for me to binge through. Hopefully it gets better as it goes.

 

[HarleyRandom]

I never liked "Raymond" and nothing I saw on the commercials made me want to watch. If you aren't sold by the commercials, my guess is you won't like it.

"Ghosts" did a very good job with that. So did "United States of Al".

 

[Grasshopper AZ]

We thought it was OK. I hope it finds its footing before they give it the ax.

 

[Tony_T]

I never liked "Raymond" and nothing I saw on the commercials made me want to watch. If you aren't sold by the commercials, my guess is you won't like it.

"Ghosts" did a very good job with that. So did "United States of Al".

Ghosts is excellent, USoAL, not so much (Stopped after 3 eps)

 

[Mike Lang]

I watched the 2nd one to see if it got better. It did not.

 

[astrohip]

It did not.

 

[terpfan1980]

I haven't watched it yet. I was and still am hoping it improves. I'll try to catch it soon, but it sounds like it wouldn't hurt me to miss it.

 

[TonyD79]

I thought it was minimally better. But not much.

 

[astrohip]

I've seen enough. It's not growing on me. It's okay-ish, but nothing special. But it needs a hook to keep me... really sharp & witty writing, a unique POV and/or concept, something, anything. Instead it's the opposite--formulaic characters, and a really annoying MIL. Annoying enough to kill the SP after last night's episode.

I don't see this one being renewed.

 

[HarleyRandom]

While I haven't watched an episode, I have shoes like the little girl in the commercial.