Partners

Not that the creative duo of David Kohan + Max Mutchnick has had bad luck with their TV series efforts since the phenomenal Will & Grace, but when your third sitcom in six years fails to survive its first season, you start to wonder where the problem lies. Partners, however, doesn't seem bad at all, and when the viewer gets used to the fact that some aspects strongly resemble W&G, it ultimately becomes a pleasant change of pace, mainly thanks to the perfect casting. Michael Urie is a scream, who maybe can't match up to someone like Sean Hayes, but with flawless timing and cleverly written lines, his Louis is funny in literally every episode. The other main attraction, despite having relatively little screen time, is Brandon Routh. His "frozen Superman" is written with a very specific flavor, but thanks to his surprisingly believable expression of innocence, it works great. It's a shame that my beloved Sophia Bush didn't have more screen time (or character development) as the only main female character, but you can't have it all. So why am I ultimately giving this such a low rating? While stronger episodes were always interspersed with slightly weaker ones, the ending came as a massive disappointment. The writers obviously knew that the studio was preventing them from going any further, but that didn't stop them from concluding the whole project in an unnecessarily open-ended and tragically clichéd way. I was almost ready to give a higher rating, but such unnecessary foulness means that Partners truly doesn't deserve it. (20/11/2013)