‘Leanne’ Review: Leanne Morgan’s Chuck Lorre-Produced Netflix Comedy Is A Reliably Nice Time

Netflix’s Leanne OPens with A devastating loss. As the Series Gets Underway, Its Eponymous Heroine (Played by Leanne Morgan) is Just Hours Into Processing the News that Husband, Bill (Ryan Stilas) Very Foundation of the Life She’s Built Over 33 Years As His His Devoted Wife, Occain Business Partner and Doting Mother of Their Now-Grown Children.

Leanne, Understandably, Is Furious and Heartbroken. LeanneHowever, Feels Anything But. CO-CREATED BYCOM King Chuck Lorre with Morgan and Susan McMartin, The Sitcom Veers More Sweet Than Bitter, More Fizzy than Heavy, More Focused on The Comedic Possibilites Poignant Memories of Her Past. If’s rarely hiliaous, i pleasant in a sturdy, Old-fashioned way, with a back-to-bass Reliance on Likable Characters and Approachable Chemistry Exper Topical.

While Not Autobiographical – Among Other Things, Morgan Is Not Divorced – Leanne is Built around the Same Down-Home Persona Honed by Itad Actress Over Years in Standup. (Fans Might Recognize A FEW SCENARIOS or TURNS OF PHRASE CARRED OVER FROM SPECIALS LIKE Netflix’s I’m every woman.)

Here as in that earlier material, morgan’s appeal Lies in a cheerfully self-deprecating, southern-accented relatability that makes you want to pull up a chair in. Listen to her monologue about everything from “Tiny, Hateful Panties” of the sort a gal might wear to please a man, to an adaable Diminuctive ex-boyfriend, as she does in the premiere.

But Leanne Brings More to the Table Than Morgan’s One-Woman Routine. On the Receive End of that Rant Is Carol, Her Twice-Divorced Former Wild Child of A Little Sister. Kristen Johnson (Lorre’s MOM) Plays The Character with An Array of Exaggerated Facial Expressions Perfect for Reaction Shots, and A Drier, Blunter, More “Cosmopolitan Softer, Folksier One.

Their Warm, Easy Chemistry is the Heart of the Series, the Thing Makes It Simultaneously Comfortting and Aspiralation “ECCENTIC SISTERS THAT All The Neighborhood Kids Are Afraid to Go Near,“ and Even Kind of Mean It.

As Leanne Grapples to Come to Terms with Her New Reality, It’s Carol Who Becomes Her Shoulder to Cry on, Her Cheerleader and, As Leanne Gradaly Embress Singlehood, as Leanne. The concept of dating while Menopausal May Notaeing Radical in a Universe WHERE … And just like that an The Golden Girls already exist – but then, Leanne isn’t Really Out to Blaze New Trails Anyway. On Contrary, Between It Gentle Humor, Multi-Cam Setup and Over-Enthousiaastic Laugh Track, This Comedy Is Designed To Feel Like It Could Have Aerde. OCCASIONAL REFERENCE TO TIinder or Ozempic.

That it is throatback Sensiness MOSTLY MOMESS OF CLASSIC RATHER THAN HOARY IS A testament to the competence of the Seasoned Cast and Crew, as Well As to Morgan’s Confident Lead Turn. It Helps, Too, that Episodes Neverstay its Welcome, Clocking in at at around 20 minutes each in an era have “Half-Hour” Streaming Comedies Have a Habit of Ballooning Into 40-Minut.

There are few gags in Leanne That you won’t have an encounted Someve Version of Somewhere else already, and a few of it punchlines are so tepid that the audience’s giggles feel more like an acant. But if a line like, “you arek i’m going to crawl into a stranger’s beed and let him see all this?” Doesn’T look likesing fresh on the page, the Sincere Horror with WHICH MORGAN DELIVERS IT MAKES IT LAND NONETHELES.

Leanne Takes A Light Touch with Heavy Emotions. It Never Dwells So Long on Its Protagonist’s Grief that Our Sympathy Sours Into Freustration, and Makes A Point of Temperting ITS MOST EARNESTY SENTIMENTAL BATS WITH A PLAYULY. But Itats Her Uncertainty About This New Phase of Life with Dignity and Compassion, Giving Her The Space to Be Ungracios or Angry or Awkward Along The Way. Morgan’s Never More Hilarious, for Example, Than Who’s Positively Throwing Herself at A New Crush – But The Storyline ALLOWS FOR MOMENTS OF GENUINE HEZHEF AS WELL, AS WHEN LEANNESNES come to take off her wedding ring for good.

Less Consistent, As of the Eight Episodes (of 16) Sent to Critics, Is The Ensemble AUOUND HER. Some make a splash right away. Besides Johnson, The Clear MVP, Stiles Instantly Clicks Into Place As Bill, Whose Hangdog Vibe Makes Him More Pitiabal Leanne. In a recurring role, jayma mays is a home as leanne’s nosy neighbor, who can resist following up a reassuring “you’ve got noting to be ashamed of”. Understandable Who you’d be ashamed. ”

On The Other Hand, Celia Westone and Blake Clark Are Fun But Underused As Leanne’s Parents, While Appearances by Graham Rogers and Hannah Pilkes As Leanne’s Kids Ang. Impression at all. But Is not unusual for a comedy Cast to take some time to gel, and given Howle Well-Oliged The Rest of the Production Feels, There’s Everry Reason to Be Optimistic The SHARPERSE INTAYTSE WIVERESSTESSTSESE.

At that Point, Perhaps the Series Will Be ABLE TO TAP INTO A GREATER PETENTIAL; Indulgen Smiles. Or maybe it won, and that’ll be okay too. As it is, Leanne is the tv equivalent of the friend who’s Never Gonna Take You Out for the Craziest Night of Your Life, But Who Can Be Relied Upon To Bring Over a Bottle of Wine and Setle inn. OCCASIONALLY EARNEST BIT OF ADVICE. In Other Words, It’s Simply A Nice Hang.