We’ve been re-learning a fact of television life in 2024: There is room for “Mid TV”, as the New York Times’ James Poniewozik called it. These are shows that aren’t going to blow you away, but they’re more than entertaining to watch, especially if you’re not in the mood for any mental heavy lifting. That’s what a lot of TV used to be back in the “old days”, and it seems to be making a comeback. A big example of “Mid TV” is the series Bookie.
Opening Shot: A cop pulls over a speeding car, and the officer touches the trunk as he approaches the driver.
The Gist: The driver is Danny Colavito (Sebastian Maniscalco), who is speeding from Los Angeles to Modesto to convince his wife Sandra (Andrea Anders) to come back home. She and their son Anthony (Maxim Swinton) went up to crash with Sandra’s mom Wendy (Dale Dickey) after Danny put his failing bookmaking business ahead of family one too many times. But first he has to deal with the cop, and explain why he was soaking wet (he fell in a pool) and why he has a bag full of cash in his trunk. Danny hits upon two good ways to deal with the cop and get himself back on the road: racism and bribery.
In the meantime, Danny’s business partner Ray (Omar J. Dorsey) is back in LA; his grandmother (Arnetia Walker) was getting married to Frank (Brent Jennings) when Frank collapsed. He eventually wakes up, but all he can do is say “Mahanga.” Hector (Jorge Garcia) and Lorraine (Vanessa Ferlito) are both there to support Ray and Grandma, but perhaps Lorraine is a bit out of place when she volunteers to stay with Frank and freaks him out with her views on aging.
Danny doesn’t convince Sandra that he’s going to change — in fact, he takes a bet by phone while pleading with her — but says “I can’t live, if living is without you,” which was on the radio in the car ride to Modesto. One thing has changed, though; Sandra and Wendy are getting along better than ever, and Sandra insists her mom comes back down to LA with them.
The next day, Danny and Ray are back at it, collecting from clients with outstanding balances. One issue is that Ray has to cart around his baby son for the day, which Danny laments will hurt their “street cred.” They meet with Walt (Rob Corddry), who has accepted a ton of Botox treatments in lieu of a payoff from a plastic surgeon client, and thinks Danny should offer it in Sandra’s store. The pair also visit Brad Garrett to collect on a betting loss, and the actor can’t help but poke fun at the fact that Ray is carrying his son on his chest.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Created by Chuck Lorre and Nick Bakay, Bookie has the same vibe as Lorre’s other single-camera comedies, Young Sheldon and The Kominsky Method, though the show is definitely closer to Kominsky on the profanity spectrum. It also has a bit of a Entourage vibe to it.
Our Take: Bookie isn’t in the usual Lorre business of digging out dramatic tidbits and moments among the funny stuff. Bakay and Lorre are just trying to show how Danny and to a lesser extent Ray are managing in a profession that’s becoming less relevant, due to legalized sports gambling. So it’s not at all trying to take itself seriously. And, while there are a couple of funny moments in the first episode, a lot of it just elicited a shrug.
Maniscalco’s Danny isn’t a far reach from his stand-up persona, but it does seem that there is a bit of humanity to him, with a downtrodden manner to him that comes through in most of his interactions. Still, he takes action on games wherever and whenever, and it seems to be a business that he doesn’t want to give up. He may be a criminal, but he’s probably an honorable one.
The rest of the cast gets their character moments, and we know that Lorre and Bakay are good at finding character moments for supporting players as a show goes along. But a lot of those moments were largely unfunny, even though they were meant to elicit laughs.
Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.
Parting Shot: Ray asks Danny to hold his baby boy so he can punch Brad Garrett’s lights out.
Sleeper Star: We’ve been fans of Andrea Anders for over 20 years now, so we’ll give her the sleeper pick any time we see her in something.
Most Pilot-y Line: Hector gets Lorraine a coffee that he says has Splenda in it, but she says it’s NutraSweet. “You can tell?” he asks. “I have a very discerning mouth,” she replies.
Our Call: STREAM IT. A lot of Bookie is “meh”, with characters in pretty unmemorable stories. But Maniscalco’s confident-but-put-upon Danny is reason enough to watch the show while folding laundry or checking e-mails.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.