James Conley

Absolutely excruciatingly painful to sit through —and I’m a famously easy audience. The format with the asides to the audience was annoying at best. The actors are all accomplished veterans but the writing simply didn’t work. The dialogue was boring, the jokes weren’t funny when this ensemble told them and the slapstick of clumsy drink spilling was such a cliche that I’d rather it wasn’t done at all. A cat cafe seems like a novel background for a sitcom but it might as well have been a right wing militia hangout or a health clinic: It just didn’t get incorporated into the plot much at all. I hate the idea of giving up so quickly on a show, but this episode made a terrible first impression. Remember how the premiere of the Brit series adaptation The Office was so compelling? It was engaging and hilarious from the beginning. Call Me Kat just left me sad and feeling rather sorry for the cast. I kept wondering if they felt during rehearsal that their days were numbered. I’ve watched and loved television sitcoms since I was a child in the 1950s. A huge number of them have been fun if not smash hits. When the cast waved to the camera at the end, I thought, that’s a good idea. Just say goodbye now. And strike the sets. Get while the gettin’ is still even a bit good.