Ray Romano has apparently reached that point in a comedian’s career where he wants to be taken seriously as an actor, so his follow-up to the much-beloved family sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond is not another easygoing comedy, but rather the reflective drama Men of a Certain Age (TNT, Mondays, 10 p.m.). Men is also a bit of a departure for TNT, whose original programming consists almost exclusively of bread-and-butter procedurals featuring cops, lawyers and doctors. There aren’t any mysteries to solve on this show, just the inevitable humiliations of aging for three men approaching 50: Joe (Romano), a former pro golfer and the owner of a party-supply store, is separated from his wife and living in a hotel; Owen (Andre Braugher) is happily married with three kids, but forced to work a demeaning job as a car salesman at a dealership owned by his father, and struggling with diabetes and a burgeoning gut; Terry (Scott Bakula) is a small-time actor and perennial bachelor, whose career these days is more temping and less acting, and whose dating life is starting to seem a little empty.
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Romano and co-creator Mike Royce (a fellow Everybody Loves Raymond writer) present the traumas of middle age with a relatively light touch, which makes for a welcome lack of melodrama compared to, say, ABC’s Brothers & Sisters, probably this show’s closest cousin. They can move too far in the other direction, though, and Men’s worst moments (including an episode devoted to the drawn-out recounting of Joe’s first post-separation date) are the ones that rely on lame, strained sitcom devices. The balance between such forced wackiness and the more nuanced drama is not always successfully maintained, but when it is, the show does a good job of painting a sensitive, insightful portrait of a segment of society not often depicted in narrative TV shows.
Men is a little like the flip side of the ABC sitcom Cougar Town, which is a sunnier, more optimistic look at aging, and tackles the issue from the female perspective. Courteney Cox’s Cougar Town protagonist is a few years younger than the Men, but she faces similar issues in parenting, dating past 40 and coping with physical degeneration. But while Cougar Town is ultimately upbeat, Men is frequently quite depressing, even when it’s straining to be funny: Joe’s gambling problem, Owen’s unhealthy eating habits and Terry’s loneliness are sources of humor, but there’s an undercurrent of despair there as well. By the time these guys make it to their late 40s, the likelihood of their changing such ingrained habits goes way down.
It’s that realistic pessimism that marks Men as a show to watch, even when it fails. Romano and Royce build up a solid supporting cast as well, with family members, co-workers and potential love interests adding up to a believable view of upper-middle-class life (it’s no coincidence that the first two episodes were directed by former Thirtysomething producer and director Scott Winant). The acting from the three leads is solid, although their chemistry with each other can be a little shaky. Sometimes they seem like they are appearing in three separate shows; in any given episode, though, at least two of those shows are pretty fascinating.
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