Matthew Perry's New Thing

When you are scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of ratings, you will look for any floatation device you can find. Such is the sad case of NBC. Their new slate of fall shows feature some big names, and the network hopes to use the Olympics — and all the eyeballs that comes with it — to generate buzz for its new shows.

The first out of the gate, as it is, happens to be the Matthew Perry comedy "Go On." For many, myself included, Perry will probably always be Chandler Bing, his alter-ego from "Friends." And, no matter what kind of show he's done, he seems to always bring the same comedic style and mannerisms to his work. He has also tried to headline a number of buzzed about shows in the space since "Friends," but none has lasted. So one has to wonder if the same won't hold true for "Go On," which actually feels like the weakest premise of any of his shows yet.

Still, NBC has pinned its hopes on big names, like Perry, and broad concepts, like the one featured in "Go On." And it is wisely using the Olympics as the launching pad to get the word out. That's why, on Wednesday after the Olympics, NBC aired the pilot for "Go On" commercial free. I went in wondering what it would be like but with moderate expectations.

It turns out, that's about the top end of where you should go in with this show. It's got some elements that might work. There are some mildly amusing moments. But there's not special hook with this show. You can see the blueprint of where it might go. There is a few sad attempts at quirk and a few sad attempts at injecting emotional relevance. But, basically, this is a show that just seems to exist.

Now, it's fair to note that pilots aren't always the best judge of shows. Sometimes the pilot ends up being one of the weakest episodes of a show. So, that could be true here too. Only a few weeks in the fall will tell.

But here's the problem: there was nothing dynamic and special about the pilot of "Go On," which NBC aired on August 8, and now we'll have to wait until September 11 to see it continue. That's more than a month. This isn't a "Glee" type situation. This isn't a dynamic new show. This is a fairly routine comedy that people now have to wait over a month to see again. This isn't the kind of buzz generation that most thought NBC would use the Olympics for.

It's possible this show will round into something special. Perry is certainly a talented performer. But, watching the pilot and viewing the promotional plan in place here, one can't help but feel this will be another well intentioned bump in the road for both NBC and Perry as they try to climb back to the top of the heap.