‘Leanne’ Evaluate: Chuck Lorre-Produced Netflix Comedy

Netflix’s Leanne opens with a devastating loss. Because the sequence will get underway, its eponymous heroine (performed by Leanne Morgan) is simply hours into processing the information that her husband, Invoice (Ryan Stiles), has determined to depart her for an additional lady — thus upending the very basis of the life she’s constructed over the previous 33 years as his devoted spouse, occasional enterprise accomplice and doting mom of their two now-grown kids.

Leanne, understandably, is livid and heartbroken. Leanne, nonetheless, feels something however. Co-created by sitcom king Chuck Lorre with Morgan and Susan McMartin, the sitcom veers extra candy than bitter, extra fizzy than heavy, extra centered on the comedic prospects of Leanne’s wide-open future than the poignant recollections of her previous. If it’s not often hilarious, it’s nice in a sturdy, old style approach, with a back-to-basics reliance on likable characters and approachable chemistry over topical jokes or formal experimentation.

Whereas not autobiographical — amongst different issues, Morgan just isn’t divorced — Leanne is constructed across the identical down-home persona honed by its lead actress over years in standup. (Followers would possibly acknowledge just a few situations or turns of phrase carried over from specials like Netflix’s I’m Each Lady.)

Right here as in that earlier materials, Morgan’s enchantment lies in a cheerfully self-deprecating, Southern-accented relatability that makes you need to pull up a chair in her suburban Tennessee kitchen — even when it’s simply to hearken to her monologue about every part from “tiny, hateful panties” of the kind a gal would possibly put on to please a person, to an adorably diminutive ex-boyfriend, as she does within the premiere.

However Leanne brings extra to the desk than Morgan’s one-woman routine. On the receiving finish of that rant is Carol, her twice-divorced former wild youngster of somewhat sister. Kristen Johnson (Lorre’s Mother) performs the character with an array of exaggerated facial expressions excellent for response pictures, and a drier, blunter, extra “cosmopolitan” (she used to reside in Chicago, we’re incessantly reminded) outlook to steadiness Leanne’s softer, folksier one.

Their heat, simple chemistry is the guts of the sequence, the factor that makes it concurrently comforting and aspirational: Everybody must be so fortunate to have a ride-or-die who’ll comply with age with you into the “eccentric sisters that each one the neighborhood children are afraid to go close to,” and even type of imply it.

As Leanne grapples to return to phrases along with her new actuality, it’s Carol who turns into her shoulder to cry on, her cheerleader and, as Leanne regularly embraces singlehood, her romance coach. The idea of relationship whereas menopausal is probably not something radical in a universe the place … And Simply Like That and The Golden Ladies exist already — however then, Leanne isn’t actually out to blaze new trails anyway. Quite the opposite, between its light humor, multi-cam setup and over-enthusiastic giggle observe, this comedy is designed to really feel prefer it might have aired anytime within the final three a long time, give or take the occasional reference to Tinder or Ozempic.

That its throwback sensibility principally comes off as basic reasonably than hoary is a testomony to the competence of the seasoned solid and crew, in addition to to Morgan’s assured lead flip. It helps, too, that the episodes by no means overstay their welcome, clocking in at round 20 minutes every in an period when “half-hour” streaming comedies have a behavior of ballooning into 40-minute run instances.

There are few gags in Leanne that you just gained’t have encountered some model of elsewhere already, and some of its punchlines are so tepid that the viewers’s giggles really feel extra like an act of generosity than an actual, spontaneous response. But when a line like, “You suppose I’m going to crawl right into a stranger’s mattress and let him see all this?” doesn’t appear to be something contemporary on the web page, the honest horror with which Morgan delivers it makes it land nonetheless.

Leanne takes a lightweight contact with heavy feelings. It by no means dwells so lengthy on its protagonist’s grief that our sympathy sours into frustration, and makes some extent of tempering its most earnestly sentimental beats with a playful, jokey button. However it treats her uncertainty about this new section of life with dignity and compassion, giving her the area to be ungracious or indignant or awkward alongside the way in which. Morgan’s by no means extra hilarious, for instance, than when she’s positively throwing herself at a brand new crush — however the storyline permits for moments of real grief as nicely, as when Leanne realizes that the time has lastly come to take off her marriage ceremony ring for good.

Much less constant, as of the eight episodes (of 16) despatched to critics, is the ensemble round her. Some make a splash instantly. Apart from Johnson, the clear MVP, Stiles immediately clicks into place as Invoice, whose hangdog vibe makes him extra pitiable than hatable, as does Tim Daly as an FBI agent who takes an curiosity (skilled and in any other case) in Leanne. In a recurring function, Jayma Mays is a hoot as Leanne’s nosy neighbor, who can’t resist following up a reassuring “You’ve received nothing to be ashamed of” with a passive-aggressive “although it’s comprehensible why you’d be ashamed.”

Then again, Celia Weston and Blake Clark are enjoyable however underused as Leanne’s dad and mom, whereas appearances by Graham Rogers and Hannah Pilkes as Leanne’s children are so irregular and one-note they barely make any impression in any respect. However it’s commonplace for a comedy solid to take a while to gel, and given how well-oiled the remainder of the manufacturing feels, there’s each purpose to be optimistic these characters will come into sharper focus finally.

At that time, maybe the sequence will be capable to faucet right into a better potential, deepening its exploration of Leanne’s vulnerabilities whereas touchdown jokes that truly provoke full-belly laughs and never simply indulgent smiles. Or possibly it gained’t, and that’ll be okay too. As it’s, Leanne is the TV equal of the pal who’s by no means gonna take you out for the craziest evening of your life, however who may be relied upon to carry over a bottle of wine and settle into the sofa for some cute anecdotes and an sometimes earnest bit of recommendation. In different phrases, it’s merely a pleasant hold.