For better or worse, Netflix is largely responsible for pulling us out of the cable TV and DVD box set doldrums and into a new streaming era. So why do they keep dragging us back into the sewage of dated broadcast sitcoms?
It’s a question that’s been previously raised with the That ’70s Show reunion of The Ranch, and here it is again with Netflix’s latest grab at the falling-asleep-on-a-reclining-couch Boomer crowd, Merry Happy Whatever.
Dennis Quaid plays a cop and a patriarch of family where everyone who marries into it is miserable because of how terrible he is. And you can tell that it’s hilarious how terrible he is, because there’s a blaring laugh track consistently informing that.
The series is confusingly envisioned as a multi-camera sitcom that’s also a rom-com holiday anthology, with unfortunate viewers checking in on this garbage family across various celebrations. At last, the minds of Chuck Lorre and Garry Marshall have merged into the foulest ick.
