Mr. Mayor is 30 Rock meets The Good Place.
Originally conceived as a spin-off of 30 Rock with Alec Baldwin reprising his role as Jack Donaghy, Mr. Mayor puts Ted Danson’s Mayor Neil Bremer into the Donaghy role. With Danson driving the show, Mayor Bremer comes across as a modified Michael from The Good Place. Unfortunately, Mr. Mayor does not have the staying power of the other two shows. It’s an ok show, which should be concerning for NBC.
The show kicked off with a two episode premiere. Both episodes blend together. There are three key plot points introduced in the two episodes. The first is Mayor Bremer’s teenage daughter, Orly (Kyla Kenedy, The Walking Dead), runs for class president at her all girls school, thinks she’s going to lose, and wins. It’s a plot that would be at home in a Ryan Murphy high school show. The second is Bremer and Arpi Meskiman (Holly Hunter, The Big Sick) rivalry, which causes Bremer to appoint her deputy mayor because he believes in “keeping your friends close and your enemies closer.” Bremer underestimates Meskiman, who knows how to manipulate him into agreeing to her atrociously named PPPORN plan.The third plotline is only in the second episode and has Bremer get high off of pot gummies and ruin an entire day’s worth of publicity students through sheer idiocy.
Skip it. Mr. Mayor may redeem itself, but nothing suggests it should be given that chance. It’s forgettable, stupid, and lacks any charm. Ted Danson is being typecast as a bumbling idiot with too much power. For her part, Tina Fey recycled a script that didn’t deserve to be rescued from the trash. Maybe it would’ve worked better had Alec Baldwin stayed attached to the project. Although, that doesn’t seem likely.
Even though it has no clear plot connection to 30 Rock, in many ways, Mr. Mayor is 30 Rock‘s, Joey. Not every sitcom is Cheers with its own Frasier or a Big Bang Theory with a Young Sheldon, some follow their iconic their iconic runs with a show that wouldn’t get greenlit had it not been for the earlier show’s success. Mr. Mayor currently falls into the failure category because it relies too much on the goodwill Ted Danson built up over his career and not enough on creating a show people want to watch.
To be fair, I’m not a Tina Fey fan. However, I do like Ted Danson, who was the reason I was interested in the show in the first place. Fey didn’t win me over. Ted Danson disappointed me. Go watch 30 Rock or The Good Place, it’s a much better use of your time.
