Ground Floor (Season 2)

By: Robert Murphy

Yes, the return of the workplace comedy, Ground Floor, has come and gone once again but hasn't missed a beat since it's big first season send off. For those of you who don't know, the show is a workplace comedy that takes place in the offices of Remington Trust, a giant financial firm that is run by tough as nails Remington Mansfield (John C. McGinley). His right hand man is Brody Moyer (Pitch Perfect's Skylar Astin) and the events of last season led him down a different path when he falls for a ground floor employee by the name of Jenny (Briga Heelan). It's a hilarious story that works somewhat like a Romeo and Juliet type of event where people on the top don't mingle or make friends with the ground floor employees and vice verse but despite being torn between work and a girl he likes, Brody still finds a balance. This is until the end of the first season where he loses his job after deciding to go to Paris with Jenny instead of Hong Kong with Mr.Mansfield. Now he's back and will undoubtedly try to win his way back into the inner circle and get his old job back, anyway he can. 

Things may have changed but the formula for what the first season of Ground Floor had that made things work so well has certainly returned. Brody doesn't have the fancy job and life style he once did anymore and now is starting from the ground floor with Jenny, a great episode all by itself right there as Jenny panics over the thought of working with him 24/7. But, Brody is still doing anything he can to try and gain Mansfield's approval, which he needs now more than ever as he tries to get back his former job and being the right hand again to one of the most powerful men in the world. The antics of the unchanging persona of John C. McGinley continue as well and never fail to inspire laughter out of me. What I mean by this is Mr. Mansfield has proven to be an almost identical character to Scrubs character Dr. Cox and for me it is wonderful to see him all over again on screen. This similarity doesn't come as a surprise though as co-creator to Ground Floor is former creator for Scrubs, Bill Lawrence. 

Other returning characters are also a welcomed delight. Harvard (Rory Scovel) is perhaps one of my favorites among the ground floor level employees, he has had a massive crush on Jenny for years and it burns him to see her with an upper level guy like Brody. It's an endless delight for him to now see Brody be stuck on the ground floor though, trying to work his way back up the corporate ladder. Then there is also Mike "Threepeat" Wen, Brody's best friend and former partner on the upper level, he also takes some choice jabs at his buddy being stuck working jobs like maintenance and watering Mr. Mansfield's plants. New to the show is Lindsay Harris (Emily Heller) who is an off character like Harvard and is hired as Brody's replacement, she is a capable worker just like Brody was but her quirky antics make her a perfect match for someone like Harvard, leaving them to hook up during the show once Harvard finally lets go of Jenny. She makes a wonderful fit to a cast who already has wonderful chemistry with one another.

Outside of Brody being on the ground floor this season though things don't really change up in the formula like I said earlier and that's okay. Brody's efforts to impress Mansfield by changing small things in the low level positions don't prove to change his mind about hiring him back, even though he eventually does. It's then business as usual after that, Mansfield will yell and be strict but prove he has a heart of gold underneath it all. The finale for this season is a two part episode and on the very last episode Mansfield proves my heart of gold theory right then and there. Brody and Jenny also get increasing closer as time goes on through the show too and the story clearly has a lot of heart to it, one amazing moment in particular struck me when Brody tries to get Jenny to see Wicked, the broadway show. She fall asleep both times they go to see it but by the end of the episode she sings a wonderful solo of one of the songs and it touches Brody deeply and myself when I watched it. Bill Lawrence's experience in capturing great moments between characters continues to shine through many times during both seasons of Ground Floor and it certainly gets better here. 

Nothing out of the ordinary or ground breaking takes place for either season of Ground Floor in terms of sitcoms we have seen before but it doesn't have to. The simple formulas still prove to work from time to time and the show proves that. All the characters blend well together and the new antics with Mr. Mansfield and Brody prove to change up the pace of things till he ultimately gets his job back. This second season also leaves off with yet another fantastic cliff hanger which leaves me eagerly awaiting yet another season as I hope it does for you all too.  

Good:

- Skylar Astin, John C. McGinley and Briga Heelan continue to be top notch focus for the show

- Supporting cast members return and prove to be just as great as before

- New additions like Emily Heller are well received

- The same great formula as the first season

Bad:

- Not everyone may like the similar feel it has to existing sitcoms as much as I have

Scully Rating: 9.0 out of 10

Ground Floor (Season 1)

By: Robert Murphy

(Spoilers, you know the drill)

In the insanely competitive world of investment banking there is absolutely no time to have any kind of social life let alone a relationship but Ground Floor tells the story of one guy daring enough to try and have the career and the girl. Brody (Sklyar Astin) is the top dog at his company and hopes to one day be just like his boss Remington Mansfield (John C. McGinley.) At least that was the case until the night he meets Jenny (Briga Heelan) who works with him at the same company but as a member of the building support staff. It’s the classic story of trying to get two worlds to collide and see if opposites really do attract, Dharma and Greg comes to mind when I think of what the show tries to do and then I add the comedy feel of Friends to it as well. This is know coincidence though as one of the main writers for the show, Greg Malins, worked on Friends for years and with a partner like Bill Lawrence who worked on shows like Scrubs and Spin City, you can’t go wrong.

Ground Floor returns one of my favorite actors to the screen with star John C. McGinley as he takes on another very Dr. Cox kind of role, leading with an iron fists but somehow being charmingly insane. Then we have Skylar Astin’s character Brody, now Skylar is known for his role in Pitch Perfect which doesn’t really get me hyped about him but he does play the pretty boy roll of Brody exceedingly well. Brody’s character is meant to be equal parts a guy’s club man and the affectionate type and Skylar Astin does this just right. The show is mainly about Brody and how he is torn between two worlds, his job relationship and his real one and often times Mansfield feels just like a second girlfriend who’s jealous of Brody’s new one. Then we move onto Jenny who leads a relaxing care free life on the bottom floor with the rest of her friends that work as support team members for the company. All of these characters are such great supporting additions to the show especially the character named Harvard (Rory Scovel) who has a little bit of an unhealthy obsession with Jenny. His constant jealous of Brody is constantly hilarious as he’ll do anything to impress Jenny, even going so far as to make a framed pictured of her with a million tiny photos of himself.

What’s great about the show for me was how the floors of the building almost became the seating chart of a high school cafeteria where people sit with their own people and they don’t ever mix. Jenny’s and Brody’s friends point this out right from the get go as Mansfield points out how Brody is on the road of potential and she’ll steer him right off of it. Even though later Mansfield will fall in love with her before even knowing her name and seeing that she’s not some mid-level incompetent but really quite an impressive girl. The constant issues that arise during Ground Floor prove to be a challenge for the two though with Jenny spending the night in one of the episodes and Brody complaining she shut off his alarm when it went of at 4:30 AM. Or in another instance Brody must choose between going to the same baseball game that his company and Jenny want to go to and who he chooses to sit with. All of it had me constantly laughing and waiting for the following episode each week.

I do have to point out my one flaw with the show and that’s the odd tendency to include a dance number or a musical tune into 90% of the episodes you will see. It’s not that they aren’t good but it is more or a less of a question, why? Why are you doing this exactly? What’s the point? The only explanation I can gather is that they were trying to put Skylar Astin’s musical background to some sort of use in the show but really it isn’t necessary and the shows just fine without it.

In conclusion, Ground Floor gave me quite a bit of nostalgia for the old 90’s sitcoms that I loved to watch growing up and love to watch to this day, it feels much the same way that it did when I started watching Cougar Town, another Bill Lawrence gem. There is a bit of testing that you can notice while the writers try and find things that work and don’t but it doesn’t need to with what is already a big consistent of the show. I personally hope to see it back once again for another season especially when it came right down to the big ending cliff hanger for this season.

Good:

- Gives such an old comedy feel to it that I loved

- Very funny and full of laughs

- John C. McGinley returns to television and is just the same as I remember in Scrubs

Bad:

- The tendency for musical numbers

- There’s a bit of testing here and there with the writing but the show remains solid in what it does best

Scully Rating: 9.0 out of 10