User Reviews

Very slow start. Hopefully the characters will develop and this can be a good show. I'll keep watching.

The canned laugh track - and it had to be canned because I couldn't imagine anyone actually laughing at such weak punchlines - seemed to enjoy the show more than I did. Abby's desperately wants to be Cheers. It's not. The writing needs to be a lot sharper before it even before a third as good as Cheers was. I'll watch the second episode tonight and hope it improves.

Cool show I like the live I see it being funny ina few ways

This was fun. It's got a chance to be Cheers 2.0 and I would welcome that. Very enjoyable I hope it continues what episode 1 started. Natalie Morales and Neil Flynn are top notch as always and I really liked the rest of the cast as well. Can't wait for rais episode 2.

Pilot was weak. Laugh track terribly distracting. Very few laughs. Hope it gets better.

The opposite of what a pilot should be. While the choice to film in front of a live audience, outside no-less, is a respectable decision. The cringeworthy characters, acting, dialogue, writing, and canned laughter, however, is unbearable. The first half of the episode attempted to make humorous commentary centered on alcohol. This is severely limiting the target audience with very little interest to the viewer. The last half of the episode gets dangerously close to being entertaining. If the pilot episode is supposed to grab viewer's attention, this episode failed to do the trick. As an advocator for television shows filmed in front of a live audience and looking for a modern replacement for sitcoms like "Cheers", which had a similar bar centric premise, it needs to lose the bar humor and social commentary on stereotypical people who hang out at bars. The constant reminders of bar culture detracts from what could be a fun show. What made traditional sitcoms, especially "Cheers" work was not the bar and beer references but the writing of characters. Sitcoms should be character driven with plots that deal with common real life issues. The humor should come from subplots or characters commentating on the situation. This episode had little of this writing. In addition, character development should be treated like a mystery. The characters unrealistically mentioned every defining attribute of Abby in a single paragraph length line of dialogue. It failed to make me care about the characters. It is easy to see why the show was cancelled after ten episodes. In the last few minutes of the pilot, I almost cared about the plot but not enough to stream the remaining episodes. I am curious to see where episode two goes, but not enough to tune in, stream, or purchase. The original appeal of sitcoms with the laugh track was to allow the television audience to feel as though they were a part of a live broadcast, or live performance despite being pre-recorded. "Cheers" is likely the best example. Many episodes, especially early ones, attract the viewer's attention because the audience becomes a part of the atmosphere as though they were really inside the fictional venue while keeping the fourth wall intact. "Abby's" did not even bother with the plot and threw character development unnaturally towards the audience. The few jokes that hit were made at the expense of other characters rather than situation or witty dialogue. Poor writing on all levels. No inventive, or even traditional, directing.