Extended Family, on NBC

Apparently, real estate is so cheap in Boston even a financially struggling divorced dad can afford one and a half apartments. What is the deal with the half? He and his ex-wife still maintain the “Nest” where they were raising their children. For the sake of stability, the kids stay put and the parents rotate in and out. This contrived premise becomes even more awkward when she lands a rich new fiancé in creator-showrunner Mike O’Malley’s new sitcom, Extended Family, which premieres tonight on NBC.

As Jim Kearney and Julia Mariano explain to the camera (like they’re pretending to be characters on Modern Family), after seventeen years of marriage, they wanted to return to their original friendship, while disrupting their thankless kids’ lives as little as possible. So, after their “divorce party,” they launched this unlikely home-sharing scheme.

It might sound like the set-up for a War of the Roses-like premise, with the exes fighting over every last clause in their non-habitation agreement. Obviously, Mariano’s speedy engagement to Trey Schultz adds a further point of contention. Schultz is the owner of the Boston Celtics, much like co-executive producer Wyc Grousbeck (a real-life ownership partner). However, the fictional Schultz attended MIT. Based on the first three episodes provided to the press, he has no opinion on MIT president Sally Kornbluth’s congressional testimony suggesting calling for the genocide of the Jewish people could be acceptable on campus “depending on the context.” They might have to address it eventually, because the issue is not going away—and the blandly smug Schultz is usually positioned as the “voice of reason” in most episodes.

That is assuming the series lasts that long. Extended Family feels very early 1990’s in the worst way. The “Pilot” episode revolves around Kearney’s attempts to pass off a replacement after he accidentally kills his daughter Grace’s goldfish while she was at camp. Somehow, we are supposed to believe the together-acting Mariano spent 17 years married to him. Even two weeks would stretch credulity.

“The Consequences of Making Yourself at Home” litigate the drama that arises when Shultz starts making unauthorized upgrades to “The Nest.” At least “The Consequences of Gaming” starts with a premise many parents can relate to. After two weeks away, Mariano (Abigail Spencer looking too smart for her sitcom antics) is shocked to find their son Jimmy Jr. reveling in the bloodlust of a violent Grand Theft Auto-like video game. Unfortunately, they resolve the episode with an annoyingly abrasive turn into woke politics.

Jon Cryer plays Kearney as such a man-child, it raises the cringe factor through the roof. Yet, Lenny Clarke out mugs and out schticks him as Kearney’s father Henry, who might as well run around the Nest squeezing a bicycle horn. To be fair though, he has the only funny line in three episodes. During “Gaming,” Schultz somewhat ironically thanks the Vietnam veteran “for his service,” to which he replies “I could’ve used your ‘thank you’ fifty years ago.” It is that kind of mordantly observant attitude that is otherwise missing from Extended Family.

It is really hard to recommend a sitcom that isn’t funny. That seems pretty obvious, but here we are. Extended Family is not funny, so it isn’t recommended when it premieres tonight (12/23) on NBC and streams the next day on Peacock.