Not Suitable for Work Review: Mindy Kaling's New Comedy Needs to Improve Its Work-Life Balance

Ah, one of TV's most tried-and-true genres: The hangout show. There's Friends, of course. Seinfeld. Cheers. Living Single. The Big Bang Theory. New Girl. How I Met Your Mother. And these are just the headliners. The genre is as prolific as it is enduring. This makes sense though, doesn't it? These comedies are about groups of friends dealing with whatever life throws their way, big or small. It's incredibly relatable. Comfortable. Cozy, even. (It's not surprising that these are the types of shows people will watch over and over again.) All of them are built to make us laugh. Some of them make us swoon. Many can make us shed a tear or two. But the success of a hangout show almost always comes down to just one thing: cast chemistry. Yes, it's about good writing and a fun comedy point of view, but if there's no spark between the main characters, if you don't actually want to see them hang out with each other, well, what are we even doing here?

Enter Not Suitable for Work, Mindy Kaling's latest entry into the genre. The Hulu series follows five twenty-somethings working various entry-ish level jobs in New York City. AJ (Ella Hunt) has just arrived from Boston to start an investment banking job and live with her college roommate Abby (Avantika), the assistant to a demeaning and demanding celebrity stylist (played by Constance Wu). They live across the hall from Josh (Jack Martin), a production assistant at an investigative news TV show and the son of the network's CEO; his childhood friend Kel (Nicholas Duvernay), who is debating med school or a pursuit of acting and takes a temp gig substitute teaching at an all-girls school; and Josh's college friend Davis (Will Angus), who happens to work at the same company as AJ. Hijinks are set to ensue, slow burn romances release a few initial embers, and life lessons are perhaps learned. It's a hangout show. 

5.8

Not Suitable for Work

at Hulu

Like

• Will Angus is a comedic standout amongst the ensemble
• Potential for good slow-burn romance

Dislike

• Has an artificiality to the comedy and characters that flattens it
• Stretched too thin between multiple workplace settings and doesn't give cast or characters enough time to build a real chemistry

Inevitably, Not Suitable For Work will be compared to the other splashy hangout show of recent memory, I Love LA. I mean, look, I'm doing it right here. It, too, is about twenty-somethings navigating burgeoning careers and complicated relationships in a big city, although it couldn't be further from NSFW both in aesthetics and comedic tone. But however you feel about the characters that populate I Love LA (they're supposed to be insufferable, right?) there is no way you watch even just that pilot episode and not walk away thinking about how vibrant and alive it feels. From their first interactions, there is an undeniable chemistry between the characters and the actors portraying them. You believe their relationship dynamics from the jump. Unfortunately, even after watching all nine episodes, the same cannot be said of Not Suitable For Work.

The main problem, perhaps, comes down to the glossiness of it all. Listen, not every show should look the same — that would actually be so awful, wouldn't it? — but it's hard not to see the glossy, artificiality NSFW's New York City is given and not wonder if that transferred over to other elements of the show. It certainly finds its way into the characters themselves, who on the whole feel more like TV characters and less like actual human beings. Many of their interactions feel forced; there's little warmth or intimacy in the moments that are clearly going for those feelings between friends. This, of course, carries into the comedy itself, which many times doesn't feel like it's coming from the character, but from a script. It falls flat and many times feels predictable. But there remains hope. The standout of the group is easily Will Angus as the lovesick, just inches away from toxic, doofus Davis. He joins an esteemed club of scene-stealing, lovable doofuses in Kaling's shows (please see Ike Barinholtz's Nurse Morgan in The Mindy Project and Scott MacArthur as Ness Gordon in the underrated, hilarious Running Point). Angus seems the most comfortable in his character's shoes and is a natural comedian. As a unit, the guys fare much better as the season goes on. There's a looseness in both friendship dynamics and comedic chemistry between them that develops by the time things wrap up. AJ and Abby, however, feel like acquaintances even by the season finale. 

The numerous romantic relationships, both temporary and those clearly marked for endgame status, suffer from the same stiffness. There is a startling lack of chemistry between most pairings. It's a bummer that Avantika, who has such a brightness to her on screen, gets saddled with such a predictable, lackluster arc with a movie star client that lasts almost the entire season. None of the other relationships offer much to get excited about either. No one actually seems believably into each other. Sexual tension seems to be set to zero. Let us bask in some yearning! Or at least some palpable horniness. Now, there are clearly two slow-burn relationships being set up within the main group and while at the moment neither exactly have me screaming oh my god will they or won't they?!! just yet, both end the season in interesting and compelling places. It's just a shame they waited so long to show off what they can do with them.

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At times, it feels like in order to stand out, Not Suitable For Work is fighting against what people love about hang out shows: the actual hanging out. There's so much focus on the individual work places — seriously, this show is trying to set up four separate workplace comedies on top of everything else — there's simply not enough time to get these characters together in one room and see what comes of it. Everyone is stretched too thin — both main characters and supporting work colleagues — to have any of the depth needed for an audience to be endeared to them. The best storylines of the season are without a doubt the ones that have the core five interacting more — a disastrous dinner party in Episode 3, one of the guys moving in with the girls after an argument in Episode 6. Most of the workplace storylines feel like well-trodden territory. There is some charm in the choice to focus on nepo baby Josh's relationship with hardened show producer Paula (Judy Gold) but by far the most fun (and funny) workplace scenario is that of Kel getting pushed around by bossy, privileged high school girls. It's the latter that delivers the most emotionally affecting conclusion out of all the work-related storylines, too. 

But if I'm returning to Not Suitable For Work in Season 2, should there be one, it will have nothing to do with the work of it all and will only be because of the glimmer of some sparks of chemistry between our core characters that appear by season's end. And maybe, hopefully, if there is a second season, they'll remember that hey, we're here to hang out, people. 

Premieres: Tuesday, June 2 on Hulu with three episodes, followed by new episodes each Tuesday
Who's in it: Ella Hunt, Avantika, Will Angus, Jack Martin, Nicholas Duvernay, Jay Ellis
Who's behind it: Mindy Kaling (creator), Charlie Grandy (showrunner)
For fans of: Mindy Kaling's comedies, hangout shows with heart like Friends, New Girl
Episodes watched: 9 of 9