Critic’s Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
3.5
I have a few bones to pick with the pilot in this Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage Season 1 Episode 1 review, but overall, it turned out to be a better show than expected.
Pilots are always tricky to judge because the show hasn’t fully found its voice yet, but Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage had potential once it got past its first five minutes.
Getting to know Georgie better made the show work, though there were a few things that needed to be ironed out.
The opening was rough because the series insisted on sticking in an unnecessary meta joke about laugh tracks in the first scene.
I don’t like laugh tracks, so I didn’t need commentary on how great it was that this show had one.
Georgie: Fraiser is a laughing show. I like laughing shows.
Audrey: What are you talking about?
Georgie: Some shows are laughing shows. Others aren’t. Like Wonder Years. Is it funny? No one knows cause no one laughs.
Disappointingly, the episode circled back to the same point at the end, with Jim admitting that Georgie was right about laugh tracks.
It’s too bad because in between those two annoying scenes, there was both comedy and dramatic gold, along with a relatable situation for Georgie and Mandy.
This series is supposed to take place in the early 1990s, only a few months after Georgie’s father dies at the end of Young Sheldon, but far too many people today can relate to wanting their own place but not being able to afford to escape their parents’ home.
That tiny house that Georgie and Mandy ended up in temporarily was especially good comedically.
The train gag would have gotten old after a while, but the moment when the train drowned out Audrey’s apology was easily the funniest in the pilot.
I wish Georgie and Mandy had stayed in that tiny apartment. It could easily have been their home for the rest of the season without interfering with the couple’s interactions with their families.
The idea of a young couple only moving out for an episode is such a tired TV trope, and the too-tiny apartment was so good for physical comedy.
It could have been like the classic screwball comedy Green Acres with its running gag about the doorknob falling off of the farmhouse door, and that train gag could have been almost as good as the flushing toilet on All in The Family.
Sadly, moving out was just a plot point, which loses points in this Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage review because of all the fun we won’t get to have in that too-small space now.
Creating A Big Bang Theory Spinoff Without Sheldon Was Risky
In order to write a fair Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage Season 1 Episode 1 review I had to divorce this show from its predecessors.
Sheldon Cooper became a phenomenon in The Big Bang Theory, which was why he got a prequel.
This show is the first one in the franchise not to feature Sheldon, and there was no guarantee that Georgie and Mandy would generate the same interest without the boy genius to play off of.
However, the show’s focus on Georgie rather than Sheldon is exactly why it worked. In Young Sheldon, Georgie is often the punchline because of his ignorance of basic facts or his conformity to stereotypes about guys who live in rural areas.
It wasn’t until near the end of Young Sheldon that Georgie became more of a well-rounded character, and even then, it was irritating because most of Young Sheldon Season 7 was a backdoor pilot for Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage.
Georgie’s conversation with Jim was one of the first times we got to see Georgie’s family dynamics from his perspective.
Jim: How’s the new place?
Georgie: It’s okay. It’s small and its temporary, but its ours.
Jim: Look at you putting a positive spin on things.
Georgie: Maybe it’s a side effect of being dumb.
Jim: She didn’t mean that.
Georgie: It’s okay. It don’t hurt my feelings. With a brother like Sheldon, I’ve been the dumb one all my life.
In Young Sheldon, we knew that Missy always felt like she got lost in Sheldon’s shadow, but Georgie was off doing his own thing.
It was never clear how being the older brother affected him (other than not wanting to sit with Sheldon at lunch in the high school cafeteria during Young Sheldon Season 1).
Georgie’s comments about feeling like he was always the dumb one were as relatable as they were painful.
Georgie has always been the poster child for the type of kid who needed vocational classes in high school.
Comedies don’t always work when they try to address social justice issues, but Georgie’s feelings about his upbringing underscored the point about people being judged only by their academic abilities without diminishing the funnier aspects of the show.
He is brilliant mechanically but wasn’t academic. It’s not that he’s not intelligent; it’s that he has a different kind of intelligence that was never accepted, especially because Sheldon kept showing him up intellectually.
I was also moved by Georgie’s declaration that Jim reminded him of his father sometimes.
Comedies don’t have to be devoid of substance. They don’t need drama for the sake of drama, but they can have heart, and this one does.
Our Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage Season 1 Episode 1 Review Of Mandy’s Parents
I liked Jim a lot, but sometimes he was too much like George Sr.
Georgie being reminded of his dad is one thing, but Jim’s mannerisms and personality seemed too on-the-nose at times, which was distracting.
Conversely, Audrey is too unlikable. Some of the comedy is supposed to come from the friction between her and Mandy and Georgie, but right now, she’s all hard edges.
Rachel Bay Jones does irritating and controlling characters well. I hated Salen on The Good Doctor for many of the same reasons, but I can’t stand Audrey right now.
It’s fine for her to be a thorn in Mandy’s side and to hate her son-in-law, but these types of antagonists work best if they have a sympathetic layer so that they seem more human and less like people who make trouble for their own sake.
Meemaw and Mary’s Cameo Should Have Come Earlier In The Episode
Before closing out this Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage Season 1 Episode 1 review, I need to point out how good it was to have some familiar faces.
Meemaw was one of my favorite Young Sheldon characters, and her and Mary’s reactions to Georgie and Mandy’s new home were great. I especially liked Meemaw’s deadpan remark after a train-quake that the kids hated Mary so much they’d rather live here.
Still, I wish they could have been present in an earlier part of the episode. A first scene with characters I already knew would have helped me ease into Georgie and Mandy’s world instead of wasting time with that laugh track joke.
Over to you, Georgie & Mandy fanatics.
What did you think of the pilot? Will you continue to watch this spinoff?
Use the poll below to rate the episode, and then hit the comments with your thoughts.
Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage airs on CBS on Thursdays at 8/7c and on Paramount+ on Fridays.
