NBC Sitcom ‘The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins’ Is Tracy Morgan’s Best Star Vehicle Since ’30 Rock’: TV Review
Per its title, the NBC sitcom “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins” is a comeback story, but it’s also a reunion. Comedian Tracy Morgan has produced a wide-ranging body of work since his breakout on “Saturday Night Live” at the turn of the millennium — and, more dramatically, since sustaining severe injuries in a New Jersey traffic collision in 2014. But his most iconic role remains, if not himself, then a part directly adjacent to his own persona: Tracy Jordan, the chaotic yet lovable co-lead of Tina Fey’s meta entertainment satire “30 Rock.” For seven seasons, Morgan balanced deep-cut cultural references and cracks about corporate mergers with a needed dose of anarchy, while Fey and her writers formed a knack for channeling Morgan’s ebullient energy into absurd, instantly iconic bits like “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah” or the concept of an EGOT.
“Reggie Dinkins” is co-created by Robert Carlock and Sam Means, two longtime staples of the broader universe one could call Feyworld. (Fey herself serves as an executive producer, as does Morgan.) Carlock has worked with Fey since their time at “SNL,” where they also overlapped with Morgan; Means did stints on “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and “Great News” in addition to “30 Rock”; more familiar names, like “Girls5Eva” creator Meredith Scardino, pop up in the credits as the 10-episode first season moves briskly along. Although Fey’s TV adaptation of Alan Alda’s “The Four Seasons” broke from these shows’ otherwise consistent MO with decidedly mixed results, “Reggie Dinkins” is a return to form, both in style and quality. That’s great news for viewers, but also for Morgan, who finally gets a character equal to Tracy Jordan in channeling his particular charisma. And this time, his name — or rather, Reggie’s — is on the door.
Like many single-camera network comedies, “Reggie Dinkins” is a mockumentary. But unlike many shows that use the framing device as a given in a post-“The Office” world without an in-text explanation of the project in progress, á la “Modern Family” or “Abbott Elementary,” “Reggie Dinkins” makes filmmaking part of the plot. (As well as the TV trend: one character says he’s been practicing his Jim Halpert face for mugging to the camera.) Morgan’s Reggie Dinkins is a former NFL star who ended his career — and lost the New York Jets the Super Bowl — by betting on his own games, an act he likens to working for tips. Thanks to Reggie’s ex-wife and current business manager Monica (Erika Alexander, a seasoned pro playing a seasoned pro), Reggie is just fine financially. But he wants his legacy to be more than his mistakes, so he hires Oscar-winning documentarian Arthur Tobin (Daniel Radcliffe, who seems to have taken a liking to TV comedy after “Miracle Workers”) to make a movie about his quest to join the league’s Hall of Fame.
Arthur himself has fallen on hard times, taking a day job at the University of Maryland Center for Documentary, MMA and Pornography after a public meltdown on a commercial set and making Reggie’s story something he can relate to. In its premiere, “Reggie Dinkins” lightly pokes fun at the kind of feather-light, celebrity-commissioned films Arthur feels he’s demeaning himself to direct, with Reggie spouting platitudes like “a son is just a homie you make” while refusing to open up about his actual feelings. And to the extent that “Reggie Dinkins” is conceptually flawed, it’s that the show falls into this trap a bit itself. Emphasizing Reggie’s financial security, good relationship with his teenage son Carmelo (Jalyn Hall) and the mutual respect between Monica and Reggie’s young influencer fiancée Brina (Precious Way, hilarious) makes the setup gentle to a fault, sanding down potential edges and giving away opportunities to dig into topical issues like CTE, athletes’ post-retirement security and the new ubiquity of sports gambling. Based on “Reggie Dinkins,” you’d never know that Reggie’s life-altering scandal is now dangerously close to the new norm.
But there are also benefits to this trade-off, chief among them a cast with chemistry in spades and a proudly goofy, punchline-a-minute pace that’s like a balm to those of us who love the Fey-Carlock oeuvre, even deep cuts like the Peacock revival of “Saved by the Bell.” With his dweeby air, pretensions and position at the helm of an active production, Arthur is the Liz Lemon of this setup, but with the emphases reversed. “Reggie Dinkins” takes evident pleasure in tossing Radcliffe curveballs like belting out the Beatles, dressing in full camouflage so Arthur can embed himself and being insulted as an “Elijah Wood lookin’ ass bitch,” all of which the actor — now 15 years into building his post-Potter image as a game, adventurous performer — handles capably. As Arthur’s muse, Morgan naturally gives Reggie a sweetness and naiveté that makes his redemption easy to root for, even with questionable logic like “Fools run errands all the time; that’s why Wawa sells sushi!” He’s good enough to make you wish “Reggie Dinkins” would test its hero’s likability a bit more, if only because Morgan is clearly up to the challenge.
Despite the long shadows of Tracy, Liz and even Michael Sheen’s stuffy Brit Wesley Snipes, “Reggie Dinkins” is not merely a collection of reheated tropes from its creative teams’ back catalog. (Though to call Brina, who happily plugs a Takis-Tampax collab and threatens to go on a trashy reality show called “Engagement Peninsula” when Reggie drags his feet on wedding planning, the show’s Jenna Maroney is to pay her the highest of compliments.) Alexander’s warmth and evident savvy make her a welcome addition to the repertory company, while Bobby Moynihan plays Reggie’s best friend, roommate and former teammate Rusty with full-body commitment to the gloriously stupid bit. Literally: the oafish Rusty gets himself stuck in a washing machine, a predicament in which the rigorously ethical Arthur refuses to intervene.
Watching “Reggie Dinkins” cohere into an ensemble, you can feel the show swap out the trenchant questions about celebrity and storytelling raised by its pilot for the comforting consistency of a ragtag gang scrambling to stay afloat, but never at true risk of sinking. Should the show become a long-running concern, such points of emphasis will justify themselves. More seasons would also provide an opportunity to fill in the gaps. Once he’s risen from the ashes, maybe Reggie Dinkins can finally have it all.
The first two episodes of “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins” will air on NBC on Feb. 23 at 8 p.m. ET, with remaining episodes airing weekly on Mondays at 8:30pm ET and streaming the next day on Peacock.
“Reggie Dinkins” is co-created by Robert Carlock and Sam Means, two longtime staples of the broader universe one could call Feyworld. (Fey herself serves as an executive producer, as does Morgan.) Carlock has worked with Fey since their time at “SNL,” where they also overlapped with Morgan; Means did stints on “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and “Great News” in addition to “30 Rock”; more familiar names, like “Girls5Eva” creator Meredith Scardino, pop up in the credits as the 10-episode first season moves briskly along. Although Fey’s TV adaptation of Alan Alda’s “The Four Seasons” broke from these shows’ otherwise consistent MO with decidedly mixed results, “Reggie Dinkins” is a return to form, both in style and quality. That’s great news for viewers, but also for Morgan, who finally gets a character equal to Tracy Jordan in channeling his particular charisma. And this time, his name — or rather, Reggie’s — is on the door.
Like many single-camera network comedies, “Reggie Dinkins” is a mockumentary. But unlike many shows that use the framing device as a given in a post-“The Office” world without an in-text explanation of the project in progress, á la “Modern Family” or “Abbott Elementary,” “Reggie Dinkins” makes filmmaking part of the plot. (As well as the TV trend: one character says he’s been practicing his Jim Halpert face for mugging to the camera.) Morgan’s Reggie Dinkins is a former NFL star who ended his career — and lost the New York Jets the Super Bowl — by betting on his own games, an act he likens to working for tips. Thanks to Reggie’s ex-wife and current business manager Monica (Erika Alexander, a seasoned pro playing a seasoned pro), Reggie is just fine financially. But he wants his legacy to be more than his mistakes, so he hires Oscar-winning documentarian Arthur Tobin (Daniel Radcliffe, who seems to have taken a liking to TV comedy after “Miracle Workers”) to make a movie about his quest to join the league’s Hall of Fame.
Arthur himself has fallen on hard times, taking a day job at the University of Maryland Center for Documentary, MMA and Pornography after a public meltdown on a commercial set and making Reggie’s story something he can relate to. In its premiere, “Reggie Dinkins” lightly pokes fun at the kind of feather-light, celebrity-commissioned films Arthur feels he’s demeaning himself to direct, with Reggie spouting platitudes like “a son is just a homie you make” while refusing to open up about his actual feelings. And to the extent that “Reggie Dinkins” is conceptually flawed, it’s that the show falls into this trap a bit itself. Emphasizing Reggie’s financial security, good relationship with his teenage son Carmelo (Jalyn Hall) and the mutual respect between Monica and Reggie’s young influencer fiancée Brina (Precious Way, hilarious) makes the setup gentle to a fault, sanding down potential edges and giving away opportunities to dig into topical issues like CTE, athletes’ post-retirement security and the new ubiquity of sports gambling. Based on “Reggie Dinkins,” you’d never know that Reggie’s life-altering scandal is now dangerously close to the new norm.
But there are also benefits to this trade-off, chief among them a cast with chemistry in spades and a proudly goofy, punchline-a-minute pace that’s like a balm to those of us who love the Fey-Carlock oeuvre, even deep cuts like the Peacock revival of “Saved by the Bell.” With his dweeby air, pretensions and position at the helm of an active production, Arthur is the Liz Lemon of this setup, but with the emphases reversed. “Reggie Dinkins” takes evident pleasure in tossing Radcliffe curveballs like belting out the Beatles, dressing in full camouflage so Arthur can embed himself and being insulted as an “Elijah Wood lookin’ ass bitch,” all of which the actor — now 15 years into building his post-Potter image as a game, adventurous performer — handles capably. As Arthur’s muse, Morgan naturally gives Reggie a sweetness and naiveté that makes his redemption easy to root for, even with questionable logic like “Fools run errands all the time; that’s why Wawa sells sushi!” He’s good enough to make you wish “Reggie Dinkins” would test its hero’s likability a bit more, if only because Morgan is clearly up to the challenge.
Despite the long shadows of Tracy, Liz and even Michael Sheen’s stuffy Brit Wesley Snipes, “Reggie Dinkins” is not merely a collection of reheated tropes from its creative teams’ back catalog. (Though to call Brina, who happily plugs a Takis-Tampax collab and threatens to go on a trashy reality show called “Engagement Peninsula” when Reggie drags his feet on wedding planning, the show’s Jenna Maroney is to pay her the highest of compliments.) Alexander’s warmth and evident savvy make her a welcome addition to the repertory company, while Bobby Moynihan plays Reggie’s best friend, roommate and former teammate Rusty with full-body commitment to the gloriously stupid bit. Literally: the oafish Rusty gets himself stuck in a washing machine, a predicament in which the rigorously ethical Arthur refuses to intervene.
Watching “Reggie Dinkins” cohere into an ensemble, you can feel the show swap out the trenchant questions about celebrity and storytelling raised by its pilot for the comforting consistency of a ragtag gang scrambling to stay afloat, but never at true risk of sinking. Should the show become a long-running concern, such points of emphasis will justify themselves. More seasons would also provide an opportunity to fill in the gaps. Once he’s risen from the ashes, maybe Reggie Dinkins can finally have it all.
The first two episodes of “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins” will air on NBC on Feb. 23 at 8 p.m. ET, with remaining episodes airing weekly on Mondays at 8:30pm ET and streaming the next day on Peacock.