Andy Barker, P.I.: Noir + Accountancy = Surprisingly Fun

All right, NBC. So you're going to take 30 Rock off the schedule for a few weeks and replace it with this new show, Andy Barker, P.I. You've helpfully provided the entire season online to build up a nice buzz. But is it good?

The answer: yes. It would have to be, with such a good comedy pedigree: Conan O'Brien is the co-creator, Andy Richter is the star, and Tony Hale co-stars as a film geek/video store clerk. (Okay, scratch that last one, because I just looked up Tony Hale's IMDb page, and he was in Because I Said So, RV, Unaccompanied Minors, and Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector. I'm not sure he gets enough credit from Arrested Development to outweigh all that schlock.) The concept is kind of silly – CPA becomes accidental PI – but it works better than I expected it to, particularly when Andy holds a meeting with a client in the middle of a car chase. And it pokes so much fun at film noir that, if you're a film buff, it's hard not to be disarmed. The characters are, happily, fun to watch as well. Andy is funny, and so is Buster – uh, I mean Simon – but my favorite characters at this point are Lew, the bad-ass Robert Altman lookalike, and Wally, whose surveillance system – well, you'll just have to see it. (Also, that archives clerk? Give her a spinoff!) If I have one complaint about the show, it's that it plays things too safe. It doesn't push the sitcom envelope the way the other NBC comedies do, or like I know Conan & Co. can do. It's not bad; it's just more like a traditional sitcom than the new breed of post-millennial absurdist sitcoms.

So check it out. You can watch it now, or you can watch it next Thursday, March 15, in the regular 30 Rock time slot. And if 30 Rock did have to step aside for any show, I'm glad that it is for one that is actually funny.