Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Broke’ On CBS, A Sitcom Where A Struggling Bartender’s Formerly Rich Sister And Husband Move In

It’s completely coincidental in a few different ways, but now there are two sitcoms on network television about people moving in with relatives due to going broke. Granted, the people going broke had too much money and no idea how to manage it, but it does seem like a germane topic to these times, especially since the pandemic-related downturn. Indebted, now almost through its first season, hasn’t been very good. So how will the similarly-themed Broke fare?

BROKE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: The opening strains to Veruca Salt’s “Seether” play. Jackie (Pauley Perrette) is taking a blow torch to a pipe when her son Sammy (Antonio Raul Corbo) calls down that he can’t find a clean shirt. The microwave goes on the fritz so Jackie cooks Sammy’s oatmeal with the blow torch.

The Gist: Jackie works two jobs to support her and Sammy, and her ex has been consistently late with child support payments. They live in her parents’ old house in Reseda, re-decorated to fit Jackie’s artistic, rock ‘n’ roll style. As the usual chaos of her morning unfolds, she gets a knock on the door. It’s her sister Elizabeth (Natasha Leggero), her husband Javier (Jaime Camil) and Luis (Izzy Diaz), who is Javier says is “my assistant, my driver, but more importantly… my friend.”

They haven’t seen Jackie and Sammy in 5 years. Once Elizabeth married Javier, she tried hard to fit into the super-wealthy circles he socialized in; she adopted a fake accent, and references things like Jackie’s home having an “entryway.” There’s a reason why they’re there, though: They’re broke. Javier ran through his trust fund and his father has decided to cut him off rather than support his wild spending ways. How much does he spend? The last thing he bought was a pyramid.

Jackie has never asked her sister for money before, but is working to ask for help to fix some things around the house. When the two of them go to the bar where Jackie works (she’s going early to fix the beer taps… Elizabeth says “It’s 9:30 somewhere!” and gets a drink), Elizabeth breaks the news that they’re broke and want to move in. Jackie is upset, but mostly about why her sister disappeared on her once she settled in with Javier and now only needs her because they’re broke.

Meanwhile, Javier takes it upon himself to meet with Sammy’s teacher, who is utterly charmed by Sammy’s handsome tio. She wants Sammy to finish his family history assignment and not make silly videos, but Javier thinks his nephew is a genius (he knows genius because he considers himself one). He convinces the teacher to let him make a family history video. That video is what convinces Jackie that she’ll give it a try having Elizabeth, Javier and Luis around.

Our Take: There was a more than even chance that Broke could have been stupid as hell. After all, the similarly-themed Indebted, with similarly talented people in front and behind the camera, has been an unfunny disaster, and CBS’s promos for Broke haven’t put the show in the best light. But we saw glimmers of a good show in the pilot, thanks to showrunners Alex Herschlag and Jennie Snyder Urman’s insistence on taking time to build the characters instead of going for cheap gags.

When the show does go for gags, they don’t always land. We’re surprised, for instance, that Perrette, who is best known for NCIS but got her start on sitcoms like The Drew Carey Show, mugged her way through the pilot, exaggerating her reactions in a way that we thought took away from the story. Camil, Leggero and Diaz, on the other hand, played their characters well, doing what good sitcom actors do, which is playing their character straight even when they’re doing funny things.

Camill, who is supposedly the first Latino to lead a CBS sitcom since Desi Arnaz on I Love Lucy almost 70 years ago, is especially good as Javier. Granted, as one of the show’s EPs, and the fact that he worked with Urman on Jane The Virgin, Javier was written to take advantage of his combination of charm and comedic self-regard. He also starred in the Mexican version of this show (itself a remake of the original Colombian telenovela). But he’s certainly going to be the one who will carry this story, and the more real he can be — at least within his puffed-up persona — the better the series will get going forward.

But we saw evidence that the show will be more interested in building humor through character, like when Luis talks to Jackie about why he still works for Javier. One, his father pays him, but two, Javier is the only one who stuck with him when he came out. And that loyalty means the world to him. That is more than enough character development to make Javier the show’s anchor, someone that will hold down the comedic fort while the writers have time to deepen the characters around him.

There are enough glimpses of Elizabeth and Jackie, though, to tell us that they once used to be close, and that Elizabeth was just as adept with her father’s toolkit as Jackie is now. There will be class differences that will be sources of humor, but we hope we see Jackie and Elizabeth reestablish their relationship, and hope we see more dimensions to Elizabeth than we usually see from Leggero’s previous sitcom characters.

Sex and Skin: Nothing, beyond Elizabeth and Javier saying sweet nothings to each other… in front of Luis.

Parting Shot: When Jackie says she’ll give the new arrangement a try, Elizabeth takes her tiny dog out of her purse. “He’s been here the whole time!” she says.

Sleeper Star: We really enjoy Diaz as Luis, who very expertly explains to Sammy what a “Mexican handshake” is and clarifies that he doesn’t have a photographic memory, but remembers everything. “There’s a fine line.”

Most Pilot-y Line: “You found the love of your life, and I fell for the lead singer of a Van Halen cover band!” Jackie says to Elizabeth during a “tub talk,” something they did as kids when their parents fought. Jackie should have known that the dude wasn’t going anywhere.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Broke isn’t good yet, by any means. But Camil’s presence, and the idea that the pilot at least made an effort to make their characters more than gag machines, means the show at least shows some promise.

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 Broke On CBS.com