Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Sunnyside’ On NBC, Where Kal Penn Is A Disgraced Politician Who Finds A Cause With A Group Of Immigrants

Immigration has been a hot-button topic for the past few years, for reasons we don’t have to rehash here. Let’s just say that undocumented immigrants — even ones that don’t have any memories of their home countries — are under more of an existential threat than ever. So, Mike Schur, Matt Murray, David Miner and Kal Penn thought it would be perfect fodder for comedy, with Penn starring. Huh? Read on for more about Sunnyside…

SUNNYSIDE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: We see 2004 campaign ads for Garrett Modi (Kal Penn), a young, energetic New York City council candidate who thinks he can make a difference. Cut to 2019 and he’s sleeping on the couch of his office.

The Gist: He gets kicked out of his office when his replacement, Diana Barea (Ana Villafañe), moves in. She gives the skinny on what happened: Due to ineffectiveness, corruption, or both, the council voted unanimously to remove him from office. It seems that the young, energetic Garrett spent his fifteen years in office “partying with Wall Street douchebags and D-list celebrities instead of, you know, doing your actual job.” Garrett defends himself by saying he brought Elon Musk to his Sunnyside, Queens district “and he agreed to build that tunnel that no one wants.”

He moves in with his sister Mallory (Kiran Deol) because his girlfriend had also kicked him out. Garrett pops open his laptop and we then see what really got him removed from office: A viral police video of a drunk and arrogant Garrett getting arrested on the BQE, vomiting on a police car and offering cops a bribe. That’s when he sees an ad for a website where he can offer hanging out with him for a small fee. He figures he can use his infamy for some quick cash.

As he collects money from people who want to ask him questions about being “the drunk councilman,” he gets an offer from a group that doesn’t care about his stories. They’re a group of people who, for one reason or another, are under threat from ICE and want to get their citizenship. They figure that Garrett can teach them about civics and history (he can’t) and that he knows people who can speed the process along (he doesn’t).

Brady (Moses Storm) looks like an All-American guy but he was brought here by his Mom from Moldova when he was 2 and she overstayed her visa; Jun Ho and Mei Lin (former Decider columnist Joel Kim Booster and Poppy Liu) are the rich kids of a mysterious Asian magnate; Hakim (Samba Schutte) was a surgeon in Ethiopia but drives a taxi here; and Griselda (Diana Maria Riva) is from the Dominican and works about a thousand jobs to make ends meet. There’s also Drazen (Tudor Petrut), also Moldovian, but someone Brady wishes didn’t keep playing awful music and calling him “brother.”

After some song and dance where he pretends to call someone influential, but instead calls Mal, the group hire him for the week. Mei Lin has so little concept of money that she gives Garrett a wad of cash just because “it smells.” Garrett feels he can make this his road to getting re-elected, despite Mal giving him examples of how that doesn’t happen (Anthony Weiner is mentioned twice). He doesn’t take things seriously enough, though, doing a “field trip” to a baseball game (where Griselda also works) to talk about America as a melting pot.

But when Drazen is detained by ICE, he realizes that these people really need his help. He calls Diana to find out if she can pull some strings to see where Drazen is detained, and decided that it’s his mission to help this group achieve citizenship.

Our Take: The idea behind Sunnyside, which comes from the Michael Schur comedy factory (Matt Murray, David Miner and Penn are also executive producers), isn’t new. The premise is familiar: A guy who needs to redeem himself becomes the de facto leader of a ragtag group of people who need his help. That kind of show was popularized with Community a decade (!) ago, and NBC has placed a similarly-themed show, Perfect Harmony, on the same night.

But in the hands of Schur and company, that format still works, for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, the show is funny. Just like most shows produced by Schur, there are rapid-fire jokes and throwaway lines that are often funnier than the jokes, but the characters giving them are given an opportunity to not just be joke machines but full-formed characters. Schur believes in the ensemble, and when it works (Parks and Rec, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place) it’s because it’s a group you want to hang with.

The existential fear undocumented immigrants have in 2019 is a good overlay to the group dynamic in Sunnyside, and with Penn involved on the writing and production side, this theme — along with Garrett’s struggle with his own Indian identity — will likely continue for the season. How long this group takes to get their citizenship — or get deported — is anyone’s guess. But this group definitely has room to grow into a cohesive ensemble, and soon.

Sex and Skin: Nothing.

Parting Shot: After vowing to help the group achieve citizenship, he conducts class in Mal’s apartment. When she complains that she has surgery in the morning (she’s a doctor), Hakim asks what kind. “Who are you?” she asks. “I’m Hakim!” he replies, as if she knows who he is.

Sleeper Star: Speaking of Mal, Kiran Deol has the most thankless job on this show, playing the adult in the room who always has to keep Garrett in line. She gets off some funny lines — the Weiner one is pretty good — and we hope that continues.

Most Pilot-y Line: We think Griselda has all those jobs as a way of stating how tough it is to make ends meet, especially in New York. But the fact that the writers gave the Dominican all those jobs feels a bit on the nose.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Sunnyside works because of Schur and company’s ability to put together great ensembles, and Kal Penn’s usual expert comedic presence, both in front and behind the camera. Let’s just hope there’s enough story for this ensemble to have multiple seasons.

Your Call:

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream Sunnyside On NBC.com