Not Suitable for Work premiered June 2 on Hulu.
By Elazar Abrahams
Not Suitable for Work is one of the best television pilots in years, and one of the best comedies in quite a long time as well.
Is it too bold to say that this streaming series from Mindy Kaling could be the next Friends or How I Met Your Mother? Almost certainly. It’s nearly impossible for a sitcom to break out and have that kind of monocultural impact anymore – the type of thing just doesn’t exist the way it did when those shows were at their peak. But Not Suitable for Work has the bones to be the level of quality those iconic shows were. It has the sauce! It’s a stellar ensemble comedy that’s hilarious, and so perfectly captures coming of adulthood with your squad in New York City.
The show follows five work-obsessed post-grads trying to build careers and some version of a life in Manhattan’s Murray Hill. They live in a guy’s apartment and a girl’s apartment next door to each other. Sure, it’s a setup that’s been done a hundred times before, but rarely this well.
Immediately, it’s clear who each of the characters are, but not in a lazy archetype way. They’re easy to root for, and the dynamics quickly set up several will-they-won’t-theys that will be fun to track as the show continues to run.
Ella Hunt plays AJ, a cute finance newbie from New England, Avantika is Abby, a messy but never annoying fashionista, and Will Angus is Davis, an endearing finance bro. Jack Martin is Josh, a nepo baby PA, and Nicholas Duvernay is Kel, med school dropout turned struggling actor. They all think they’re ready for adulthood, until adulthood hits back.
The season is serialized enough to justify a binge, but each episode has real A and B plots that begin and end in the half-hour runtime. It harkens back to the network sitcoms of old. The jokes flow, the timing is sharp, and there’s a real heart to the friends. It’s also genuinely relatable if you’re around the age of these characters – the post-grad panic of aimlessness is captured so well here, in a way that makes the comedy hit harder.
If the audience shows up, Not Suitable for Work has the makings of a long-running hangout show. It’s not reinventing the wheel, but it reminds us how good the wheel can be.
I give Not Suitable for Work an A.
