The poster for "Up All Night" features its stars, Will Arnett and Christina Applegate, lying slumped on the ground with a baby on top of them, as Maya Rudolph sits in the background looking important. Under the show's bright purple title, the tagline reads, "Sleep is for babies."
Superficially, it does convey the basic premise of the show. Arnett and Applegate respectively play Chris and Reagan, a successful couple with a newborn baby; shenanigans ensue. Meanwhile, Rudolph plays an Oprah-esque TV personality named Ava, Reagan's boss and best friend. It's a simple enough premise, but it reveals nothing about the show's quality and potential.
As the terrible poster suggests, the marketing for "Up All Night" could not be worse. Promos on NBC feature "No Sleep Tonight" by the Faders — the one-hit-wonder band from 2005 you can barely remember — and most ads for the show feature some kind of diaper joke. NBC is angling for cheap laughs by presenting this show as a fish-out-of-water comedy. However, viewers willing to look beyond the network's bland and tacky advertising will find a wholehearted and genuine comedy.
The pilots wastes no time in exposition. As soon as Chris and Reagan discover that they're about to have a child, the opening credits walk us through their past — crazy clubbing pictures included — and the pregnancy and lo and behold, Reagan's getting ready for her first day back on the job. And all before the first ad break.
Within its first few minutes, "Up All Night" clamors to remind viewers it's a family comedy for the 21st century. Its portrayal of a modern family work surprisingly well. Chris is revealed to be a stay-at-home dad. Formerly a lawyer, he's left his job to take care of the newborn Amy. His decision is never played up in terms of gender issues — he's just a character, not a caricature. "Up All Night" is reminiscent of "The Kids Are All Right" (2010) and "Modern Family" in how it adapts modern, progressive ideas of what family means without making them the central feature of its story.
The show's sincerity is its defining characteristic. In the first scene that features Amy, Chris and Reagan express their awe for their "f--king beautiful" baby. The line could be played for cheap laughs, but Arnett and Applegate's convincing performances make the moment heartwarming.
The pilot sets up the framework of the show seamlessly — the primary plot centers on Chris, Reagan and Amy at home, while the secondary plot features the exploits of Reagan and Ava at the office. Though Ava is completely forgettable in the pilot, her role begins to pick up speed in subsequent episodes. Writers have started to transform Ava into a more offbeat character, and wackiness nicely foils Chris and Reagan's relative normalcy.
Arnett steals the best moments in these early episodes. In the very first episode, he has a magnificent sequence in which he braves the wilds of a grocery store, desperate to find some regular cheese and aching to return to the safety of his suburban fortress. All the while, he's protecting his child from doting old ladies.
Critics and fans have expressed valid concern that "Up All Night" will be damaged by its gimmickry. Though the first few episodes offer clever humor and remarkable balance, they also contain signs that the show might descend into diaper jokes, or get too distracted by the workplace subplot.
Fortunately, creator Emily Spivey and her writing team demonstrate with each new episode a deeper grasp of a grander set of themes for the show. "Up All Night" is becoming a show about finding maturity in the starkness of adult life, and approaches the subject in the way "Community" and "Modern Family" did in their first episodes. It is also a show about finding happiness in the calmness and normalcy of settling down — a topic too often relegated to the Disney Channel and "Full House" (1987-1995) reruns.
"Up All Night" still needs to find a balance between its primary and secondary plots, but all signs point to great potential. Perhaps it's too early to compare the show to "Community" and "Modern Family," but "Up All Night" is definitely one of fall's most promising new shows.
