I got hold of season 1 of this show on the basis of a good handful of reviews gushing over it and comparing it to Arrested Development and 30 Rock and suggesting fans of those would love it. I tried not to take this too seriously but it did sway me enough to check it out. What I found was that, if it does live up to the hype, it doesn't happen right away in the first season. The short run of episodes focuses on the group of four friends who run Paddy's Bar in Philadelphia. The best way to describe them would be to take the "shockingly tactless" aspect of Sarah Silverman's comedy, dilute it and inject it into the morality centres of these four characters.
Covering abortion, death, sexual abuse, underage drinking and other such subjects, the characters mainly spend their time on the wrong side of the line that the vast majority of us would morally draw on this issues. The result is not as shockingly "oh my god she did what" as with Silverman and, as a result the show is not as funny but does benefit from being much more accessible as a "proper" sitcom with characters in it. The first season is very short and typically for American television, each episode is barely 20 minutes long thanks to the commercials, but it still delivers several laughs in each episode. Outside of these it managed to give me a sense of being amused even if I was not laugh because it has a fresh, almost improvised, feel to the comedy that worked for me. It didn't feel like the rapid fire, tightly scripted comedy of 30 Rock or Daily Show (both of which I love) but it feels a bit more relaxed and natural.
The cast are pretty good with the material and make this natural feel work. Day, Olson, Howerton and McElhenney all work well together and deliver the lines well even if ultimately the dialogue and funny moments tend to include them rather than be directly related to their performances (if you see what I mean). Overall the first season of this show is amusing with cleverly subversive laughs and plots. I don't think it is amazing but I certainly enjoyed it enough to come back for the second season to see if the potential can be developed into a consistently funny show.