American Autos. Hulu dropped two NBC mid-season replacements (they still have those) at the same time, and I'm home sick today, so I'm reviewing both. I don't hold out much hope for this one, since not many LGBT people are car fans: the goal is to more to a gay neighborhood where cars are unnecessary. But a press release bragged that they cast out LGBTQ actor Michael Benjamin Washington, so maybe he plays a gay character on the show.
Scene 1: Board meeting at Payne Motors. Everyone complains about the name of their new electric car, the Ponderosa. Doeesn't it mean something dirty, like giant vagina? No, it means powerful in Spanish.
Scene 2: Everyone is irate over hiring a woman to run the company. Women don't know anything about business, or cars! Isn't this more of a plotline from 1963? Besides, Sassy Black Lady says, when a man is in charge,I can get out of anything by flirting with him. Yep, gay men don't exist. But you cannot flirt with a woman. "Well, technically you could. We're 95% sure about my cousin. She just bought two ladders." Closet lesbian joke! Now I'm sure this is 1963.
Scene 3: On the way to meet the new employees. The Boss's assistant advises that she could talk about how excited she is to work here. She scoffs: "It was just about the money." "But what do you love about cars?" "Not into them."
Suddenly Assistant sees hot Blue Collar guy (Tye White), claims she doesn't know him, and rushes over to talk to him. "Hooking up was fun, but we're not allowed to date employees. Especially from the factory." Ok, conflict for its own sake.
Scene 4: New Boss wants the Sassy Black Lady to go over some technical specs, but she protests "The only technology I know about is my hair dryer and my vibrator." Who would mention that at work, to the Boss? Her friend, Wesley *Jon Barinholtz), who was apparently passed over for the Boss job, gripes.
Scene 5: Boss, Assistant, Designer (Michael Benjamin Washington), and I guess company Lawyer (Humphrey Ker) in the new electric car. You get it to run by saying, for instance, "Baby, drive us around the block." Lawyer at this is misogynistic, diminishing women. Designer says "No, this car is a man."
Meanwhile Wesley the wannabe CEO discusses a power coups with Blue Collar Guy. Whoops, the car doesn't stop, and runs him over!
Designer explains: the car has trouble distinguishing dark tones. So it won't stop for black people. "Great, we've designed the world's first racist car." Shouldn't it stop for any obstacle? And what if it's a black person wearing light colothing? Or a white person wearing dark clothing?
Boss wants to know why they didn't test the car in advance. "We did, but aall the cutouts of people we used were white. And they have six hour before the car is released for sale.
Scene 6: Technician going crazy. How is this my fault? It's systemic racism! Assistant reveals her hookup with Blue-Collar Guy last week. Technician says, "Oh, you mean the hot guy?" So he's being represented as gay.
Scene 7: The board discusses what to do. Maybe a horn to warn black people out of the way/ Hot Blue Collar guy accidentally outs Assistant as his hookup.
Boss suggests making a new car out of random car parts from the employee parking lot. Um,...wouldn't the employees object? Blue Collar Guy gets the job of assembling the new car.
Scene 8: The big reveal. The car looks like a pink hearse. It's not as grotesque as I imagined from the conversations, but the spectators still look disgusted. Assistant saves the day by claiming that it's a modular car, where the customer gets to choose all the parts for themselves.
Scene 9: Everyone getting drunk after their failure. Assisant runs into Blue Collar Guy with his stuff, and tells himt that he shouldn't quit, just because they hooked up. There are 15,000 employees, so it's not like they'll be seeing each other every day. Surprise -- he got promoted to the big time, as the company's new Blue Collar Consultant. So they will be seeing each other every day. This is presented as a shock ending, but I don't see why she cares.
Beefcake: No. All scenes are set at work.
Gay Characters: Designer, probably.
Anahronisms: Wesley keeps saying "My great-grandfather would never agree to having a woman in charge." So? It was 100 years ago. He probably didn't hire black people and Jews, either.
Homophobic Jokes: I didn't like the "we're 95% sure about my cousin" joke. If it's 2021, why didn't the cousin come out at age 8?
Mocumentary: No. I hate mocumentaries, especially ones like Modern Family, where we're expected to believe that a camera crew followed that family around for ten years.
My Grade: B. Extra points for not being a mockumentary.