Men at Work (TBS) - Series Premiere: Synopsis and Review

‘Men at work’ revolves around the lives of four friends; Milo (Danny Masterson, ‘That '70s Show’), Tyler (Michael Cassidy, ‘The O.C.’), Gibbs (James Lesure, ‘Las Vegas’) and Neal (Adam Busch, ’Buffy the Vampire Slayer’). It airs on TBS, Thursdays at 10/9c. The series begins with Milo’s girlfriend Lisa breaking up with him. He thinks there is another man. She says there isn’t, but eventually spits out the name Paul. They struggle over her backpack and Milo accidentally sends it flying through the open window, thus ending their relationship with a bang. Milo goes to his friends and tells them what happened. They talk to him and make things worse by saying some not very helpful things before they decide to take him out that evening.

Gibbs goes to Tyler’s house to pick up his camera and ends up sleeping with Tyler’s hot cleaning lady, on Tyler’s couch. In the meantime, Tyler scares off Damian, the man he wanted to interview for the magazine they all work at.

Neal has problems with his girlfriend: she wants to have too much sex and preferably with some dirty talk and he can’t handle it. He swears he is not gay though. For him, Milo’s problems are a good reason to stay away from home just a little while longer, telling his girlfriend he needs to look after him. At night, Neal finds Milo in the tub, feeling sorry for himself. Neal then tricks him into promising he will go out with the guys that night.

At the club, Tyler confronts Gibbs about him sleeping with his cleaning lady. Gibbs admits this without hesitation, and Tyler gets mad at him for ‘banging his cleaning lady’. Milo then explains in the clearest dialogue ever why this is making Tyler mad, and finally Gibbs understands. He apologizes (or well, he says ‘My bad’ which is probably as close as he will get to an apology) and all is well again.

Then, Milo and Tyler see Damian in the club, with a man. This was unknown information and obviously, Damian runs after Tyler to persuade him not to tell anyone. In the process of running, he bumps into someone who is clearly looking for a fight. Tyler saves him from an ordinary bar fight by making a fool out of the guy, and promises not to publish the delicate piece of information, resulting in a type of friendship between Damian and Tyler which then grants Tyler access to Damian’s after party.

Milo then tries to seduce a woman, but seeing as how he’s very drunk he isn’t very successful. Luckily, Gibbs is a very good wingman, so both girls join them to Tyler’s apartment (something he won’t be too thrilled about, I suspect). Unluckily, Gibbs has way more sex appeal than Milo does, or at least at this time, so he ends up sleeping with both girls, leaving Milo alone in the living room. Milo then deletes his first picture of Lisa and seems to be content with this.

The next morning, after having breakfast at a diner with his friends, Milo meets a lovely waitress called Elizabeth (whose friends call her Lisa, how ironic it that?). He asks her if she wants to have a drink with him sometime, and she responds with a heartwarming ‘yes’.

This series was pretty much what I expected. It wasn’t extremely funny, but it was OK. There were some pretty good jokes, some decent ones, and a few jokes that weren’t funny at all. I liked how there was a bigger storyline behind it, it makes the show a lot better that there was something connecting the different scenes. All in all, it wasn’t great, but it also wasn’t horrible. It’s a perfect show to watch when you’re waiting for something else, or when you’re too tired to really pay attention. Like I said in my Upcoming Comedy TV Series hub: ‘Men at Work’ is one of those shows that are a dime a dozen, but that doesn’t have to be a problem.