Playboy Club

[Emperor]

One of two new broadcast hourlongs set in 1963 (the other being ABC’s “Pan Am”), NBC’s “The Playboy Club” is decidedly the lesser of the two not very good “Mad Men” wannabes. It’s about the employees and customers of pornographer Hugh Hefner’s flagship Chicago hot spot.

 

The new series is the brainchild of Chad Hodge, who created the family-of-fugitives drams “Runaway” for the CW back in 2006. It stars piping hot 25-year-old big-screen actress Amber Heard (“Pineapple Express,” “Zombieland,” “Drive Hard”) as the lead bunny, 38—year-old primetime fixture Eddie Cibrian (“Third Watch,” “CSI Miami”) as a mob lawyer and the ageless David Krumholtz (“Numbers”) as the club manager.

 

The setting has promise, but the execution is bland, unpersuasive and well worth skipping.

 

The New York Times says:

 

... an unwieldy and mostly humdrum combination of mob tale and backstage musical ...

 

The Los Angeles Times says:

 

... it helps when a show has substance and direction. "The Playboy Club" has neither ...

 

The Chicago Tribune says:

 

... a plot riot, bidding almost desperately to find some narrative thread that will keep your attention. ... doesn't prove any more surprising than the answers the magazine's models give on the monthly questionnaire known as the "Playmate Data Sheet." Like mean people or rainy Saturdays, "The Playboy Club" is, alas, a turn-off.

 

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:

 

... the title may be the most provocative thing about the show. ... If the show can rein in some of its more outrageous plot tendencies and focus on music and social issues, it could grow into a "Club" viewers will want to frequent.

TV Guide says:

 

... dreary pastiche ...

 

The San Francisco Chronicle says:

 

... even as no-brainer entertainment, it really should be a lot better than it is. ... Chad Hodge's script is not only obvious but rather shallow. There's virtually no character development beyond what you might find on a storyboard. … unless the writing of the show improves exponentially, it may not be around long enough for us to remember the characters' first names, much less learn their last.

 

The Washington Post says:

 

... ambitious but ultimately weak ...

 

The Boston Herald says:

 

 

... tries to duplicate the success of AMC’s “Mad Men” but cribs the wrong details with a woefully untalented cast, mixed feminist messages and a melodrama that is at times laugh-out-loud funny. ... Cibrian, a stiff who inexplicably manages to consistently get work when so many other fine mannequins are forced to stand in store display windows, is a poor Don Draper clone. What dark secrets is he hiding? Who cares? …

 

The Boston Globe says:

 

… Am I hooked? No, not even on the articles. It wants to be “Mad Men,’’ as if that show is cloneable. But Cibrian, trying to be Jon Hamm, is too nice and dull; the bunnies are obvious types, from the alpha to the newbie; the club setting is claustrophobic; the gangsters are out of central casting; and historical clichés are everywhere. …

USA Today says:

 

... Even if you are interested, Playboy has its drawbacks — starting with the two lead characters. ...

 

Variety says:

 

... glossy if not wholly satisfying period soap. Advance hand-wringing about racy content appears wholly overblown, if perhaps helpful from a promotional standpoint. Yet the setting only fitfully works as a prism through which to contemplate the present -- one of the inherent strengths of "Mad Men" ...

[Rufae]

Canceled after 3 weeks.... the first to fall of the new shows.