DAVID BIANCULLI

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PARTNERS
August 4, 2014  | By David Bianculli

FX, 9:00 p.m. ET

 

SERIES PREMIERE: Give FX credit for rolling the dice on a somewhat bold experiment here. They’re taking two sitcom stars from a previous TV generation, and pairing them in a new comedy about lawyers, with very different approaches and ethics, who join forces. The “odd couple” premise is one of TV’s oldest and most successful, so what makes Partners relatively daring? The fact that it’s an aggressively integrated comedy, taking Kelsey Grammer (who, as Frasier Crane on Cheers and Frasier, embodied one of the “whitest” characters in TV comedy) and placing him opposite Martin Lawrence (whose Martin sitcom character was just as plainly as proudly “black”). Whatever happens in the long run with this series, everyone involved gets credit, at least, for trying to break barriers and combine audiences.

 
 
 
 
 
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