I'm a big TV fan. I watch way more TV than most people I know, so I was shocked to find out about FOX's Enlisted for the first time last week, nine-tenths of the way through the show's first (and unfortunately last) season.
FOX had been batting well above .500 when it came to single-cam comedies, having found success with New Girl, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and (kinda/sorta) The Mindy Project. Enlisted fit right in with those other shows, and like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, it found its footing as a convincing and overall funny show very quickly.
The show follows three brothers, solders assigned to the U.S. Army's rear detachment. The brothers along with the rest of the platoon make up a lovable pack of misfits that follow some typical sitcom tropes but still provide an interesting spin to the workplace comedy. It's about soldiers, but there's a nice balance of men and women and stories that include both points of view. And it doesn't just focus on the three brothers. The storylines in each episode involve most of the cast, or at least different combinations of the group, so the show is not just Michael Scott and the rest of the gang, which I appreciate.
Unfortunately, Enlisted aired at 9:30pm on Fridays. It wasn't moved there. That was its original timeslot. I'm a loser that does nothing on weekends, and even I don't watch TV on Friday nights. Last Friday the ninth and final episode, of a planned thirteen episodes, aired as FOX chose to remove it from the schedule.
On one hand, it's understandable. If you run the network, you have to get rid of something, and it's not going to be New Girl, Brooklyn or Mindy. And really, this is the type of show that gets fourth billing. It's genuinely funny but easy to not recognize amidst its network competition. Because of the low ratings, there probably wouldn't be a huge backlash at its cancellation. But the show (I just finished episode 6) really had potential. There isn't anything that separates Enlisted from Brooklyn Nine-Nine except that Andy Samberg stars in one of the shows, and its lack of star power or at least familiar faces (Chris Powell who plays the middle brother is probably the most famous for having played Piz in Veronica Mars) likely led it to the chopping block.
You could have easily placed it in Tuesday's comedy lineup and made it more significant, but for whatever reason Fox is choosing to keep faith in the middling Mindy Project. I don't know enough about how TV works to understand why a show needs to be cancelled, especially considering acclaimed sitcoms don't just fall from the sky. But I highly suggest watching the show. All episodes are currently available on Hulu, and hopefully the show finds life on Netflix or something along those lines.
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