Reboot
Disney Plus | ★★★★✩

I could never really get into Modern Family. Every so often I’d catch an episode, laugh a bit, admire it, but was never compelled to pursue onwards. It felt like a mishmash; too knowing but too safe, too informed yet too traditional.

Now its creator Steven Levitan has a new show for Hulu, here on Disney+, about precisely this dilemma when it comes to making a sitcom: is it possible to make something great that’s all things to all people?

And stretching postmodernism to its limits, is it possible to make something great, that’s about trying to make something great that’s all things to all people?

Reboot credit Hulu (10)

Alyah Chanelle Scott and Judy Greer, right (Hulu)

Reboot takes us behind the scenes of a cheesy Noughties Hulu family sitcom being updated to appeal to modern sensibilities with modern jokes, or as one of the leads excitingly, unironically and ironically calls them — “jokes that don’t get laughs”.

There are in-jokes aplenty, some blink and you miss it, as when a constantly swearing theatre director apologises under her breath, “Sorry, I’ve been directing too much Mamet.” I’m not sure if everyone will get all the references and it’s knowing to the point of arch, but for this sitcom writer they were like manna from heaven.

Then there’s the other broader content. Bits of nudity, bits of even baser stuff, bits of hackery.

No particular sensibility dominates, but they all sit somewhat uneasily together, akin to the cynical meta-narrative being held within its saccharine outer layer. This is a world of selfish egotistical self-important people doing terrible things, BUT, they can learn and grow.

Leading the cast,is Keegan-Michael Key as the thespian reduced to menial comedy. He’s excellent as always, but unfortunately seems to have a knack for choosing funny series, that get scrapped. Which is unfortunately what’s happened here. With no series two on the way, is this worth your investment? Absolutely.

The core of the show is the struggle between the old and the new, represented by Paul Reiser, the show’s original creator, and Rachel Bloom as his daughter, its “edgy” new writer.

The twist being she’s his estranged daughter, whose existence was previously written out.

It’s a back and forth then between generations, but also an acknowledgement of the massive paradigm shift in Western society these past 20 years, and explores whether this gulf that can be navigated, or perhaps below the surface nothing much has changed at all. We’re all still human beings struggling to get by.

Through it all, Yiddishisms are sprinkled like confetti (schmekel making a welcome appearance) and not just from the mouths of Jews, for this is Hollywood, baby! and a timely reminder that our people are woven into its very being.

We invented the sitcom, we sustained it, and on the strength of this we’ve got a lot more to offer. A shame then about its cancellation, but it can be added to the pantheon of sitcoms in the sky, among the nearly greats.