It really feels like there is a formula to the workplace comedy these days. You have the awkward but well-meaning center of the show, oddball coworkers like the one who cares too much and the one who doesn’t care at all, and then clients who act like clueless jerks. A new CBS comedy has all of this, but it takes place in one of the worst places on earth: The DMV.
Opening Shot: Scenes of people driving and sitting at the DMV.
The Gist: At a DMV East Hollywood, we see Collette (Harriet Dyer), a driving test examiner, getting in a car with a guy who looks like he may have violence in his history. Vic (Tony Cavalero) another examiner, gets his driver to pay for his breakfast. And a third examiner, Gregg (Tim Meadows) tests a hoarder and gets sprayed by a ferret.
All in a day’s work at the DMV. When the three of them get into the office, crammed with people waiting their turn, and Gregg says, “Slow day.”
Collette is OK with her job, especially when a cute new clerk, Noa (Alex Tarrant), starts working there. Vic can see what’s going on, noting that since Noa started working there, Collette “started wearing makeup, stopped eating tuna, and only wear clothes that show off your ass.” Collette does want to make a move, but she keeps getting blocked by a pretty colleague everyone calls Hot Kristen (Samantha Helt).
After being promoted to manager, their colleague Barbara (Molly Kearney) is amped up for her first day running things. Immediately, though, she’s faced with the presence of two consultants who are there to evaluate which of the four Hollywood-area offices will be fully automated, which means the staff would get laid off.
After a harrowing test with a senior citizen, Collette decides to go for it with Noa, using a pic of the dog she’s fostering as an opening. They seem to hit it off, though a feminine hygiene pad attached to her skirt doesn’t exactly make her look all that confident. After that embarrassment, Collette decides that she needs to go home for the day, but with Noa at the front desk, she tries to find another route out. But when she tries to go out a tiny window, she gets caught on a nail, making the pad incident look like nothing by comparison.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Created by Dana Klein, DMV is a workplace comedy like Animal Control, The Paper, and American Auto (more on that last one below).
Our Take: The only thing that distinguishes DMV from other workplace comedies is where it takes place. Yes, there has never been a show that takes place in the state government bureau that everyone hates going to and hope goes to die, but the character types and situations we see in the first episode aren’t all that different than what we’ve seen in other comedies of this type.
The people the staff have to deal with range from the senior citizen who basically hits everything during her driving test and still asks Collette if she passed, or an obnoxious guy (Mark Feuerstein) who brings an expired passport when signing up for a Real ID license, and gets pissed at Noa for following the rules. But dealing with the public in between the stories regarding the people who work in the office is pretty much the structure we’ve seen countless times before.
That being said, there are funny moments in the first episode, because it’s hard to have pros like Dyer, Meadows and Kearney in the cast and not get some laughs. One of the things we wonder, though, is if Dyer is essentially doing the same fumbling character we saw her do in American Auto. Listen, she’s good at playing someone who never acts comfortable, but given how good we’ve seen her be in a show like Colin From Accounts, it feels like the writers of DMV can give her more to do than just being awkward.
Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.
Parting Shot: Given that she impaled herself on a nail in front of the whole office, Collette passes on going to the bar to celebrate Barbara’s promotion. But she changes her mind when Noa says he’s going to be there and wants to know more about the dog she’s fostering (which, by the way, feels like a clever nod to Colin From Accounts, doesn’t it?).
Sleeper Star: Gigi Zumbado plays Ceci, who calls herself a “photographer and laminator,” which means she takes pictures for licenses. She has her own funny quirks but was more of an observer in this first episode than part of the story.
Most Pilot-y Line: “You have no idea how hard it is to be a single woman in her thirties,” says Collette to Gregg and Vic. “Is it any harder than being a Black man in his sixties?” asks Gregg, knowing what the answer to that is.
Our Call: STREAM IT. While there doesn’t seem to be anything new about DMV, the cast has potential and the first episode had enough funny moments to give the show a chance.
New episodes of DMV premiere on Monday nights on CBS, but can also be streamed live for Paramount+ Premium subscribers. Paramount+ Essential subscribers can stream DMV next day.
Paramount+ offers two subscription plans. The ad-supported Essential plan costs $7.99/month, while the ad-free Premium plan (which comes with Showtime and live CBS) costs $12.99/month. New subscribers can take advantage of a seven-day free trial.
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.