User reviews

Joel McHale tickles me, but miscast as outdoors stud.

Stephen Frye is good. The millennials suck, or blame the gawd-awful writing.

I would laugh a couple times per episode, but not worth the other 28 minutes of pain.

There are certain comedic concepts that lazy joke writers love. These involve things like mothers-in-law warring with daughters-in-law or residents of Alabama trailer parks marrying their sisters. They require no cleverness or originality, just a knowledge of how such jokes are structured and the ability to recall previous jokes and change them around a little.

The Great Indoors is a show that always goes for the easy, obvious laugh. It's the sort of show that, even when you do laugh - which happens rarely - you don't enjoy the laugh that much, because you've already laughed at that joke hundreds of times before.

The premise is simple. A macho, outdoorsy writer is forced to take an office job amongst callow millennials. He teaches them something about "real life" and they teach himself about the "modern world."

The first thing I find odd about this series is that the clueless old guy is a Gen-Xer. I know a lot of Gen-Xers, and many live on their iPhones, texting and tweeting and posting selfies on Instagram. I feel the character is more like a Baby Boomer; it would make a lot more sense if the part was played by Robert DeNiro. Although I'm a Baby Boomer and look, I'm using the Internet!

The portrayal of Millenials makes me think of elderly comedians on stage going, "man, these kids today with their podcasts and their hip-hop, what's up with them?" It's as though the series is written by aliens who have simply read some joke books but have never actually met any humans.

This is not to say that there aren't young people are technologically adept but a little clueless, or that there aren't fortysomethings who lives have not intersected much with technology. The problem is not showing such characters, but in acting as though these characters aren't individuals but are rather generational archetypes.

I was ready to give up after one episode, but then I happened to see that a couple of people on the IMDb message board for this series said that episode 2 was so much better. This turned out to be untrue; perhaps it was the writers trying to save their show. If so, they put more work into IMDb than they did in writing their jokes.

Sick of stupid "10 things to do" listicles? Want to hit thos special unicorn millenials with their stupid selfiesticks every time you see them? Have you actually been out of your house recently?

Then this might be just the sitcom, you have been waiting for!

The great Indoors is an entertaining clash of the generations sitcom, dragging out every cliché there is about young and old people and lets them struggle through everyday life working at an outdoor magazine... indoors.

If you're easily upset, like most of the current generation is, this might not be the one for you. But grab you participation award at the door anyways.

Joel McHale sporting the same beard from his final season (and hopefully a movie) of Community and the great Stephen Fry are the two best reasons to watch out for this series in the coming weeks.......Being a guy born in the early 1990's I have always been thrown between the need to identify myself either as a Millennial or to be a part of the Gen X....So this series is perfect for me but for others looking solely for comic relief it still hasn't reached its stride yet....The characters are your basic stereotypes with modern influences so no one really stands out....But its refreshing to have a varied cast of people portraying these characters.....Also the female lead seems to be just a pretty face.....With just 2 episodes in no one can predict this series's fate but we can all recognize its potential...Hope the creators use the talent at hand well...P.S. This series at least has some hope when compared to other CBS duds this season....

This was Joel McHale's first venture back into sitcoms after Community and although he's always good for a laugh, this show just felt like someone clicked a sitcom plot generator and this was what it spit out. I won't lie and say I didn't enjoy the cast and given a better show, they would have been hilarious, but this show just wasn't built for the long run. I suppose that's why it only lasted for a single season...

It's an outdoorsman magazine with the MC a photographer that traveled the world, and episode one is him returned to the office and being told he's not being sent back out and now has to work in the office to make the website better. This is Last Man Standing with the guy from Community playing Tim Allen, and instead of 3 millennial daughters he's working with millennial co-workers. One of his co-workers is McLovin from super bad who acts exactly like Charles from Brooklyn 99. They also do a bit where one of the coworkers is never seen, just a voice from inside a tent, like Howard's mother from Big Bang Theory.

Overall 0% original show, but it stole the funny bits from funny shows, so it works well and as long as originality isn't all you're looking for still worth a watch.

Both Joel McHale and Stephen Fry knows what funny looks like. Why did they join this project? Please, I want to know! What am I not seeing? This is like what Community or a modern Fry&Laurie would make fun of, this mindless millennial vs 80s kids laugh track.

It's not BAD, it's just bland. I expected more. Which is funny, as they endlessly tag my demographic for being entitled and bored. Thats, like, the tagline. But this pilot doesn't help me with either. It doesn't contribute to any reflection or understanding, and it doesn't entertain me.

I really hope it gets better. PLEASE, get better. Pretty please, I'll share it on lots of social medias. Like, all of them, I promise, for realzies.

After reading the other reviews on here I'm apparently the only person who thinks this show is hilarious. I'll just start by saying I'm an Gen X person and yes they make quite a bit of fun of our generation. That being said, they also make fun of millennial's as well. Of course they use stereotypes for both, but they make fun of each generation pretty equally. The premise of the show is about a outdoors adventurer type that is forced to work in an office setting with a bunch of people very much his junior. The humor is simple and this show isn't a thinker, it's a "turn off your brain and laugh" show. It seems most people disagree with me, but I like it.

Jack Gordon (Joel McHale) has traveled the world as outdoorsman reporter for Outdoor Limits magazine. Owner Roland (Stephen Fry) calls him back as the magazine goes solely online. He finds himself working under his ex and bosses' daughter Brooke (Susannah Fielding). His best friend is bar owner Eddie (Chris Williams). He's forced to deal with millennial tech-obsessed co-workers Clark (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Emma (Christine Ko), and Mason (haun Brown). There is also the inappropriate receptionist Esther (Deborah Baker Jr.). Paul (Andrew Leeds) is Brooke's mild-mannered longtime fiancée.

The premise screams bad network sitcom. That annoyed me in the pilot. However, I love an irreverent Joel McHale and lovable dork Christopher Mintz-Plasse. The generally likable cast saves this show for me. I don't get concerned about the writing. It's just spending some low-intensity time with a bunch of characters I like. It's empty calories as TV.

Stephen Fry's lines would be the best thing this show has to offer but even that won't keep it from drowning in the sea of mediocrity. The worst thing I've seen for some time and certainly the worst thing I've seen Stephen in I'm sad to say. From the canned laughter to the cringe worthy banter, I won't be bothering to see if there's more to come. I'm not a fan of so called comedy soap shows from the US generally but I was curious to see it as I imagined Stephen Fry would only put his name to something worthy.

Blimey Stephen, there's no need to stoop this low, take some more pills and call your agent, stick to your proved track record of challenging the audience with mental health issues or such, you are better than this!

It's a different take on an old concept - generations collide, etc. But, face it, it's current. It's something that a lot of us over age 30 have to deal with - changing technologies and we wonder how in the heck we're supposed to stay up to speed with them. Heck, I'm an IT guy - and have been for 20+ years. I LOVE technology. I've explored new stuff, though usually on the back-end. (The servers that host the stuff, the networks that keep them connected, etc.) But, I don't tweet. *gasp*

The characters are fun, the concepts don't go all that deep, but it's some lighthearted fare that is good for some laughs. I've found myself laughing out loud at some of the jokes, and Joel McHale is rocking it.

I wanted to like this, I really tried, but it's impossible. Joel McHale was hilarious and incredible witty in both "Community" and as presenter of E!'s "The Soup". Why he accepted to star in this incredible dim-witted show is beyond me. The premise of the show is that McHale plays a former outdoor reporter, who now has to work in an office with a bunch of pampered millennials. Yes, it's the old, stillborn sitcom idea: the generation gap. So a typical joke would be that Joel (who is 40something, I guess), has no idea how to use an iPhone (cue to canned laughter) and then Christopher Mintz-Plasse (30something?) helps him out. Now, isn't that funny? Hell, NO! And then there is veteran Britishcomedian Stephen Fry. He plays Joel's boss. And, like him, is completely wasted on this show. I have no idea what leverage CBS used to blackmail them into this stale sitcom, but it must be something punishable by death sentence, because anything less would be the better option.

Horribly stereotypical representation of both generations. Millennials being shown in a big baby needing to be pandered to while Gen X being shown as the "get off my lawn" type. Very untrue, insulting and incorrect. Not every Millennial is online. Not every Gen X ISN'T online. Not every Millennial got a trophy for simply showing up-I honestly have no idea where this assumption even came from cuz I've never seen it actually happen when I raised my daughter. Not every Gen x is ornery/stubborn. Each character seem one dimensional, and I know they have more to them! "You can't ask that" got REAL annoying. If this continues to be the direction, it'll be canceled as society is no longer in the mind set of giving/receiving being made fun of.

I don't get all the bad reviews! This has become a favorite of mine. I watch it with my daughter who's gen Y (I think) as she's 18. We both laugh so what more can you want out of a show. I think it started off slow but picked up speed when they made the main character Joel McHale sort of a cynical bad boy. I hope they keep the series as my daughter and I both really enjoy it. Some reviewers seem to take the comedy personally. I think all generations are portrayed (comically) in a not so flattering light. But it's funny!

This show relies on narrowly drawn characters based on cruel, inaccurate stereotypes. Millennials are made to look incompetent. Of course, Gen Xers and Boomers hired these incompetents and spend their time being exasperated at their antics. It seems to me it would certainly be possible to find millennials who are indeed interested in outdoor activities.

The Gen Xers and Boomers do not understand any form of technology. Somehow a man who spent decades traveling the world and only recently was called back to the head office has no understanding of video links, uploads, tablets, social media or any other technology. He must have been sending his info back to the magazine by carrier pigeon.

The show is wasting wonderful actors on poorly drawn characterizations and lame story lines. The overblown laugh track cannot disguise how unfunny it is.

As a person born on the cusp between the baby boom and Gen X and someone who works in tech, I can say this unfunny sitcom is well off the mark. There is real humor to be found in these situations. Unfortunately the writers haven't found it.

It's funny to read the reviews that take this series to task for its depiction of Millennials. And those who think the show belittles Gen-Xers. In reality, I think it does disservice to both groups, first by trying to define every character by one of those two groups, promoting stereotypes.

Almost all of the "humor" in this show stems from the generational skirmishes that occur between the two camps--the Gen-X lead character (Joel McHale) and the Millennials who staff the digital magazine. The comedy is treated like a zero-sum proposition, where one side can only gain laughs at the expense of the other.

Frankly, I think the Millennials take a worse comic beating, but that may just be my personal perspective. These "journalists" seem to know almost nothing about the subject of the magazine, journalistic methods, or even how to relate to readers (or anyone else).

At its core, I think the show should be judged, in part, by how funny it is, i.e. how many laughs it generates. And the first two episodes did not elicit many. There was a brief scene involving a bear cub that managed to feel real and connected to actual feelings (though it was nearly undermined by some weak jokes about the three-second attention spans of the Millennials). Maybe the show will have to reach for more of those moments and fewer laughs to be watchable.

Joel McHale and Stephen Fry--this should be hilarious, right?

Except no. The writing is dismal, sophomoric and menial humor. The characters are shallow one note parodies that serve no purpose other than for Joel's character (couldn't even bother to remember the name) to bounce his flat jokes off of them.

Deficiencies like that aside, it's just so generic. It's the typical formulaic sitcom in the same cookie cutter pattern of other sad flops like Undateable and Outsourced. My own preference is that when I watch a show, I don't like being able to predict the entire premise, lines, and jokes in the first 6 or 7 minutes.

Joel deserves better. Stephen can do better. Not sure what to say about the rest of the cast. Just a really bad show.

So, this is my first review. The show is really, really good. Unfortunately, the younger people/viewers (millenials in the show) probably will not going to enjoy it. Sadly, because it portraits them as they are, not all, of course. The differences between the outdoor Jack, and the indoors crew shows more than some jokes. Just look at the scene with the HR woman and the lawyer: true as hell. I hope it endures. The cast is great and, as always, Stephen Fry is awesome. Joel McHale and Susannah Fielding are also very good. And if one pays attention, there will be some kind of "thing" (again) between those two.

I have already been watching this show for years. It's called LAST MAN STANDING. Just give the main character a wife and a couple kids and it's the exact same show. Conservative guy gets pulled off the road and has to work indoors with a bunch of millennials/liberals. Good job writers. You are have the ability to plagiarize. You are just as bad as White House Down/Olympus Has Fallen, Just Friends/Friends with Benefits, and every other Marvel movie that is just based on a comic book... Only reason I gave this a 3 and not a 1 is because I really like Last Man Standing... Where has all the creativity gone? I think I am going to write a book about guy who builds a droid, goes to space and fights his father with a light saber.

How does this incredibly poor effort get on television? Poor acting. Poor writing. The story line should be funny. This is not funny.

How does this incredibly poor effort get on television? Poor writing. Poor acting. Poor writing. The story line should be funny. This is not funny.

This show does not deserve five lines of criticism.

I'm one of the those rare things a New York a Conservative and an IT Director and I love this show, I'm in my late 40's and can't stand dealing with these little Apple toting babies that can barley operate their devices. The show hits it right on the head, "Stereo Typical" is applicable when a majority of a group acts the same way.... and this group acts just like their generation. Yes they do really think everyone gets a trophy, and are hyper sensitive. Cry, Cry they picked on my generation, get over yourselves and learn to laugh. The cast meshes well and makes the characters easy to to identify with. I'd recommend this to any one from the 80's generation... you know that group all the Millennials wish they were from.

The great indoors is the definition of pathetic,first of all it has fully grown people playing millennials,which doesn't make sense because millennials are kids or teenagers,not 20-something year olds. The characters are obnoxious,except for Joel mchale and Stephen fry! I don't know why some people like this,it needs to be canceled!