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All three seasons of Suburgatory, the single-camera sitcom that ran on ABC from 2011-13, just dropped on Netflix. What does that mean for you? Well, if you’re looking for a funny sitcom that’s held up over a decade after it aired, this is a good one to binge. More on why below.
SUBURGATORY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: “If someone asked me the biggest difference between the suburbs and Manhattan, I would have to say it’s the moms. It’s like the Million Mom March; the place is crawling with them,” says the voice of Tessa Altman (Jane Levy) as we see a line of suburban moms checking their makeup.
The Gist: Tessa, a cynical, Doc Marten-wearing Manhattanhite, is moving from Manhattan to Chatswin, Connecticut with her father George (Jeremy Sisto), a single architect. The precipitating incident is when he found a box of condoms in her dresser. He thinks that going out to the land of manicured lawns and lots of elbow room will be good for Tessa, though she’s not sure about that. “Pretty ironic that a box full of rubbers landed me in a town full of plastic,” we hear Tessa say as she observes the town’s surgically-altered moms flit about.
As she walks to school — refusing to ride the old lady bike George showed her — she sees “zombie-eyed” teens riding in the back of “fully-loaded SUVs” to school, and wonders if George is going to make her into one of those. It doesn’t help that when she gets to school, the guidance counselor, Mr. Wolfe (Rex Lee), introduces her to a “buddy” to show her around: The seemingly vacant, vocal fry-voiced, always-texting Dalia Royce (Carly Chaikin).
The only place where Tessa feels any respite is alone in a girls’ bathroom stall. That’s where she meets another not-glam classmate, Lisa Shay (Allie Grant), who is getting hassled by Dalia and her friends. But all Lisa does is scream at her and storm out.
In the meantime, George visits the country club where his friend, Noah Werner (Alan Tudyk), is a member; Noah is who gave George the lead to come to Chatswin. Noah is excited for George, as he’ll get propositioned left and right in town. Then George visits his first client in town, Dallas Royce (Cheryl Hines). Yes, she’s Dalia’s mom, and she gives her daughter almost anything she wants. They hit it off, and they decide that the two of them, along with Dalia and Tessa, should go shopping at the mall, so Tessa can get some clothes to help her fit in better.
Tessa responds to the horrible prospect by buying clothes to make her into a “mall skank,” and she comes to dinner with George and Noah dressed that way, as they eat a pot roast sent over by their neighbor (and Lisa’s mom), Sheila (Ana Gasteyer).
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Created by Emily Kapnek, Suburgatory was definitely part of a trend of female-led, joke-a-second single-camera sitcoms from the early 2010s, many of which were on ABC. One good example is Don’t Trust The B—- In Apartment 23.
Our Take: One of the things that Suburgatory, which aired three seasons from 2011-14, apart from a lot of similar shows of the era is that Kapnek didn’t take long to get the show past its initial conceit. Not that the “cynical city kid vs. the weird, plastic suburbs” theme ever fully went away, but it wasn’t as much of thrust behind the comedy as it was during the show’s first half-dozen or so episodes.
Kapnek and her writers allowed Tessa to find friends and allies in Chatswin, namely Lisa and her nerdy classmate Malik (Maestro Harrell). She even allowed herself to fall for Lisa’s lunkheaded frat-boy older brother Ryan (Parker Young). She also found a maternal figure in Dallas, despite the fact that she and Dalia were at best frenemies.
George and Dallas were set up from the start as a “will they/won’t they,” but their relationship was always treated with care, as they were navigating their romance knowing that their respective daughters may or may not like it. They also acknowledged that their relationship was as much about being ports in the parenting storm for each other as much as it was about attraction, a mature approach that we didn’t see much in comedies back then.
Also, the more we explored Chatswin, the weirder and funnier it became. We get to know the Shays better, including Lisa’s dad Fred (Chris Parnell), and were introduced to some of Tessa’s other classmates. In other words, the town may have seemed like a vapid, lawn-obsessed suburb at the beginning of the series, but it didn’t stay that way.
Photo: ABCPerformance Worth Watching: As much as we like Jane Leavy as Tessa — and the fact that she moved from purely cynical to slightly-OK with being in Chatswin — Carly Chaikin’s dead-eyed portrayal of Dalia was the show’s breakout performance. And Dalia got to have a number of authentic moments during the series that showed Chaikin’s range.
Sex And Skin: Nothing more than you’d see on a broadcast network sitcom.
Parting Shot: Tessa looks out her bedroom window as George waters his lawn — at the same time the neighbors do — the country club waitress who hit on him (Arden Myrin) is at the Shays house saying she’s George’s girlfriend.
Sleeper Star: Allie Grant was always funny as Lisa, who felt even more like an outcast than Tessa did, but had none of Tessa’s confidence.
Most Pilot-y Line: When she’s being a “Mall skank” at dinner, Tessa decides to just have a Red Bull. George tells her not to open that can, but she completely barrels through his orders. Remember, he’s not exactly a disciplinarian — Tessa calls him “George” rather than “Dad” most of the time — but here he seemed especially ineffective.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The pilot of Suburgatory is a funny start to a funny series that never quite got the recognition it deserved, so we hope it shoots to Netflix’s top ten after people sample it.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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