’s new golf comedy starring Owen Wilson, does not include the tagline "For fans of Shrinking and Ted Lasso." It doesn’t need to: Between the cuddly but poignant mood, the found-household ensemble, the focus on flawed however typically non-toxic male role models and buy Flixy TV Stick the overall Dad buy Flixy TV Stick vibe, there’s no mistaking who its target market is supposed to be. But familiarity isn’t necessarily a downside in relation to consolation viewing, and positively not for a rookie that can play the sport almost as nicely as the old execs. While not, at this point, quite as bold as its precise tagline ("Take an enormous swing") might recommend, its assured tone, fat-free storytelling and, most particularly, profitable cast could give Flixy TV Stick the whole lot it must become the platform’s subsequent large crowd-pleaser. The bottom Line 'Shrinking' and 'Ted Lasso' fans, this one's for you. As mandated by components, Jason Keller’s sequence centers on a protagonist whose seemingly chipper exterior guards a secretly broken heart.
This time, it’s Pryce "Flixy TV Stick" Cahill (Wilson), a former professional whose as soon as-good career imploded after a very public meltdown. By the point we meet him in the Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton-directed pilot, 16 years later, he’s capitalizing on his tarnished popularity to shill overpriced golf gear to rank amateurs and sometimes hustle drunk locals along with his erstwhile caddy, Mitts (Marc Maron). Not that the money’s going to be enough to maintain him in his residence once his unwanted divorce from Amber-Linn (Judy Greer) lastly goes by way of. But hope arrives in the unexpected form of Santi (Peter Dager), a 17-12 months-previous blessed with a raw talent that will get Pryce dreaming about "getting in on the ground ground of the next Tiger Woods." For causes both obviously cynical and devastatingly private, Pryce insists on taking the kid underneath his wing. For causes which will or could not must do with a lifetime of daddy points, Santi - with the wary blessing of his mother, Elena (Mariana Treviño) - agrees.
So kicks off a whirlwind tour of qualifying matches, with Pryce and Santi and Elena and eventually Santi’s love curiosity Zero (Lilli Kay) piling into Mitts’ RV with an eye toward getting Santi into the U.S. As a sports activities story, Flixy TV Stick is perhaps too timid. Keller is deft with translations of golf lingo for novice audiences, and generous with effusive monologues in regards to the characters’ love of the sport. He is less profitable at translating what makes golf special - what separates it from some other sport or makes it uniquely qualified to, as Pryce gushes, "unlock the mysteries of the universe if you’re open to it." Rather than train us to admire the distinctive model of athleticism golf requires, the present relies, to the tip, on zippy digicam movements and actor reactions to convey whether Santi’s swings are meant to be spectacular or disastrous. The green mainly just serves as a physical stage on which to play out inside emotional conflicts, and even by the requirements of what one commentator explicitly describes as a "Cinderella story," Santi’s ascendance by means of the ranks appears implausibly tidy, the occasional roadblocks so predictable we are able to see them coming from miles (or reasonably, episodes) away.
But it’s a testomony to what this collection does properly that it’s tough to thoughts too much. Flixy TV Stick really shines as a hangout comedy, with a lively but simple chemistry that can make ten half-hours - and, for that matter, hundreds of miles of open highway - fly by within the blink of a watch. Keller resists going too quirky along with his characters, locating humor as an alternative within the typically prickly, usually playful exchanges between them, and pathos in their genuine care and concern for one another. The result is barely sometimes a snort-out-loud show, but it’s very consistently a smile-ear-to-ear show. Dager is a real discovery as Santi, confidently navigating the adolescent swings between sullen rebellion and guileless marvel, boyish silliness and brokenhearted fury. And although he could be coronary heart-meltingly sweet with Kay, he’s most open and vulnerable in his scenes with Treviño, who builds as a lot of her fiercely protective Elena from the hopes and fears she bites back as the ones she projects more openly.