‘Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage’ Review: ‘Young Sheldon’ CBS Spinoff

Because of its title, more than the premise or the actual content, Young Sheldon was an easy series to make fun of, particularly among the subset of punchline writers who watched none of its 141 episodes. The jokes were predicated on ignoring that the Big Bang Theory prequel was actually pretty good, a single-cam comedy that was generally more tonally aligned with something like The Wonder Years than its broader multi-cam predecessor.

CBS’ Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, the spinoff to the Big Bang Theory prequel, begins with a joke about tone. The first scene of the pilot features Georgie (Montana Jordan) sitting with in-laws Jim (Will Sasso) and Audrey (Rachel Bay Jones), watching Frasier.

“Frasier’s a laughing show. I like laughing shows,” Georgie says. Asked to elaborate, he explains, “Some shows you can hear people laughing, and some you can’t.”

His generally disapproving mother-in-law replies, “Well, I prefer to laugh when I choose to.”

Think of this comedy as a hybrid that splits the difference between The Big Bang Theory (a laughing show) and Young Sheldon (not a laughing show). It features some scenes accompanied by a loudly enthusiastic studio audience and others — the more overtly emotional ones — filmed sans forced guffaws. In that respect, the Chuck Lorre-produced project it most resembles is probably Mom, a frequently exceptional sitcom that featured a great guest appearance by First Marriage star Emily Osment, rather than either of the Sheldonian smashes that came before.

Unfortunately, while Mom arrived with an immediate hook (addiction recovery and generational relationships between damaged women) — as did both The Big Bang Theory (nerds are uncomfortable among hot women) and Young Sheldon (young nerds were uncomfortable in Texas in the ’90s) — First Marriage hasn’t quite cemented a clear purpose through the opening two episodes sent to critics. It has a good cast and, with Lorre, Steven Molaro and Steve Holland as creators, an appealing proficiency with the format. But it feels exactly like what it is: a series floating on the periphery of two distinctive hits, which has yet to figure out what will make it distinctive on its own.

The plot, which requires no specific knowledge of either previous show and yet would feel even more ephemeral without that awareness, focuses on Georgie and Mandy (Osment), new parents living with her parents in a midsized Texas town in … actually, I have no clue what year it is anymore in this universe.

Georgie, a big-hearted dim bulb, is working for Jim, who owns a tire store or something. Mandy, slightly older and slightly smarter than Georgie, dreams of being a television reporter, but can’t find work. Jim is generally easy to get along with, while Audrey thinks that Georgie ruined her daughter’s life, but she’s just a general pill. The last member of their household is Connor (Dougie Baldwin), Mandy’s music-loving brother who is nebulously Sheldon-esque in affect.

It’s a comparison that Sheldon’s big brother Georgie makes multiple times in the first two episodes, which feature a lot of references to and cameos from figures from Young Sheldon universe. There are appearances by Zoe Perry’s Mary, Annie Potts’ Meemaw and Raegan Revord’s Missy, as well as a scene in which Georgie indignantly freaks out about the possibility of leaving fictional Medford — as if to offer reassurance that whenever First Marriage loses its moorings, an allusion to Young Sheldon won’t be far away.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since viewers are already attached to those characters. Perry and Potts are very funny, while Revord delivers a genuinely excellent dramatic beat in the second episode. But it isn’t always a good thing, either. While you don’t need to have seen Young Sheldon or The Big Bang Theory to make sense of First Marriage, you absolutely need to have seen one or the other to completely understand why CBS would be excited for a show this innocuously slender in character and drama.

The connections to the earlier texts are simultaneously irrelevant to the plot yet obtrusively load-bearing. They fill space that could be used instead to develop these new relationships and this new situation that are ultimately what the series is going to require in order to succeed, unless the assumption should be made that every single installment is going to feature a, “Hey, remember things that happened on that other show!” guest appearance. But CBS didn’t send out any episodes that attempt to stand alone.

Take away the connection to the characters played by Perry and Potts, take away the emotional resonance of multiple scenes set at the grave of Lance Barber’s late George Senior and you’re left with — what, exactly?

Jordan and Osment have a cute chemistry, but it’s bizarre how much more of it is exhibited in the opening credits sequence, with Georgie and Mandy dancing a sexy tango through a living room in domestic disarray, than in the series itself. That the title and previously established Big Bang Theory lore have made it clear this marriage is doomed offers a looming sense of melancholy that the narrative isn’t ready to engage with yet — even though to my mind, that’s a thing that ought to set First Marriage apart.

Incidentally, I felt similarly about early chapters of Young Sheldon and the looming prospect of George Senior’s death, which Big Bang Theory fans knew was on the horizon, and Young Sheldon actually ended up dealing with that fairly well. So it isn’t that I would rule out a successful tonal navigation, just that I can’t review a new series on faith.

The instantly repetitive familiarity of the Jim/Audrey dynamic is more of an impediment. I’m sure the comedy will eventually find more for Dear Evan Hansen Tony winner Jones to do than play a character who is forced to perpetually apologize for being wrong about Georgie and Mandy, even though she may, in fact, be correct about whatever eventually leads to the demise of their marriage. As it stands, however, Audrey is mostly a nagging wife.

Jim is mostly Fred Flintstone, which forced me to check to see if Will Sasso had ever played Fred Flintstone in, like, a straight-to-Quibi Flintstones series, which is now something I would very much like to watch. Honestly, given that Georgie and Mandy are a slightly grown-up Pebbles and Bam-Bam, I think I just wrote a Halloween fantasy storyline for this show.

If Connor ever becomes more than another opportunity to tip-toe around depictions of assumed autism and an excuse to make references to Sheldon, he could become an interesting character. So far, he is not.

If Ruben (Jessie Prez), the other employee at Jim’s tire shop, ever becomes more than that guy who resents Georgie for usurping him in a job that he isn’t qualified for, he could become an interesting character. So far, he is not.

One thing Chuck Lorre rarely gets enough credit for — though, in the immortal words of Don Draper, that’s what the money is for — is smartly adjusting his shows on the fly. The Big Bang Theory was awful for much of its first season and then, especially in the middle of its run, became a fine example of the form. Young Sheldon and Mom both evolved into the best case scenario hinted at in their pilots.

So maybe that’s where Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage will go? The first two episodes are flat and lack distinctiveness, but they have some ingrained warmth and humor that could eventually be steered into something good.