Gary Unmarried: The Complete First Season DVD: Review By Dodd

It seems like television sitcoms were onto a certain trend at one time involving oafish males. Yes, the cliche has been around for decades from Homer Simpson to Archie Bunker, but there seems to have been a saturation as of lately. Just off the top of my head: Still Standing, According to Jim, and King of Queens. They all feature a barrel-chested protagonist who is married to a smoking hot wife. CBS seems particularly keen on this idea as the cookie-cutter storyline sort of continues with the sitcom Gary Unmarried.

Gary Unmarried is one of those sitcoms that was likely created in a 5-minute pitch session in which a bunch of executives said, "Hey, let's do something like King of Queens but change the family dynamic to make it look different." In this series, Jay Mohr plays Gary Brooks. As the title suggests, he is "unmarried" after being recently divorced from his wife (Paula Marshall). They share custody over their two children. Son Tom is an awkward 14-year-old just experiencing girls and daughter Louise is a pint-sized leftist immersed in culture. After being divorced for 3 months, Gary finds that it is time to move on and begins a relationship with a single mother (Jaime King). However, he finds that the process of starting a new relationship is not as easy as it once was when he was a strapping, single man without the beer gut. This particularly becomes more interesting when his ex-wife announces that she is engaged to their former, older marriage counselor (Ed Begley Jr.)

The first season of Gary Unmarried is pretty hit and miss. I love television in all of its glory, and I love exploring the nooks and crannies of every new series. I guess this is why my hunger for originality makes me shrug off something like Gary Unmarried during its normal weekly run on CBS. I do appreciate some of the simple jokes in which Gary pokes fun at his wife's new suitor for being old and riding a bicycle (a little Ed Begley in-joke), but the fact of the matter is that I see the jokes coming from a mile away. Gary is a dude's dude who makes fun of anything that is not predictably male. When his daughter mentions culture, he thinks she is weird and the studio audience laughs. When his son mentions joining an Internet community, once more, Gary pokes fun and the audience laughs. I think you pretty much get the picture. I've always liked Jay Mohr and he has true likability here. I am just slightly unimpressed when seeing the same old "dude" sitcom for the umpteenth time.

The special features do contain an array of goodies that fans of the show would appreciate. There is a blooper reel, which is always good fun. There is also a few gimmicky featurettes. This includes "Planet Begley". Why is this included? Because I think it is pretty much a rule of thumb that everywhere Begley Jr. goes is also his message of global safety. This idea is predictable, but at the same time, I kind of like the guy and really wish I could be close to his solar-paneled home when the apocalypse happens. There is also "The Chemistry of Comedy" which is your run-of-the-mill piece in which the cast takes viewers on the set of the comedy. This is quite comparable to "Tuesday on the Set With Jay" that is the same idea, except exclusively hosted by Mohr himself.

The series is in widescreen (1.78:1) and the aesthetic is like that of your standard sitcom. The series is filmed with multiple cameras on a soundstage. I realize that television is changing, but the look of a sitcom reminds me of my childhood.

The series is in 5.1 Dolby Surround, but it is nothing to write home about. You get the crisp, clear sounds of a sitcom without any static.

There are 3 discs contained within a single case that contain 20 episodes of the first season.

The first season of Gary Unmarried is not what I would compare to discovering treasure. There are the shows that everyone must seek out to discover groundbreaking entertainment, and then there are the shows that are only purchased by fans. Gary Unmarried falls under the category of the latter. I snickered a few times, but as a guy, I can't help but roll my eyes at the trite jokes surrounding Gary in all his "dude glory". Maybe this is worth a rental if you yearn for the shows once dominated by Jim Belushi or Kevin James.