Fox's new comedy ironically titled "The Winner" chronicles the life of a complete loser, Glen Abbott (Rob Corddry), a jobless 32-year-old who lives at home with his parents.
The show takes place in 1994, when Glen's "adolescence" began. The interaction between Glen, his na've and tragically unfunny mother Irene (Julie Hagerty) and his tough love dad Ron (Lenny Clarke) is interrupted by the arrival of Alison (Erinn Hayes). Alison, Glen's childhood crush and the only girl he has ever kissed, moves back into town in order to take care of her sick mother.
Glen seizes the opportunity to run over to her house and relive his fondest memory of intimacy. In a series of awkward conversations, punctuated by the occasional good one-liner, Glen discovers that Alison is a divorcee with a son.
Despite their "romantic" history, it is really Alison's son, Josh (Keir Gilchrist), who is Glen's soul mate. They bond over their compulsive tendencies and Josh takes a liking to Glen. Ordinarily an immediate friendship between a 32-year-old virgin and a preteen boy might send up the Michael Jackson alert, but there is something endearing about the way that Glen and Josh relate that creates an innocent dynamic that's part cool uncle and nephew and part nerdy duo.
Glen's chance encounter with Alison motivates him to go and seek a job. After rifling through the classifieds with his parents, he decides that the best opportunity for him would be a position, suggested by his mother and far out of his reach, at Black and Decker. He goes to the interview sans resume and gets laughed out of the office.
Walking home, he bumps into Josh, who just met the love of his life in a video store, but didn't actually speak to her. Putting his stalking skills and pop culture knowledge to good use, Glen gives Josh a pickup line that he heard on "Party of Five" to woo the girl at the video store. The day is conveniently lucky, as the girl finds Josh's frightening approach charming, and he scores a date. Glen scores a job at the video store but decides to tell Alison that he works at Black and Decker.
As if this sequence of events wasn't perfect enough to set up a continuous string of overreaching sentimental comedy, Josh convinces his mom to host a double date dinner party. More awkwardness ensues as bad jokes about the '90s are made and Glen is forced to come clean about his real place of employment. Lucky for him, O.J. Simpson is tearing down an L.A. street, and Alison couldn't care less about Glen's lack of any redeeming qualities.
The episode is concluded when Glen finally realizes that he is growing up and Josh gets to second base with his date. It all fits together, like a nice little puzzle, when the present day Glen reveals that he is currently a millionaire, married with three children. This gave the show an interesting twist, since the unemployed, balding and overweight protagonist was not looking like a winner to anyone, except maybe his mother.
Overall, the humor was disappointing to say the least. The show is an eclectic combination of "The Wonder Years" and "The Forty Year Old Virgin" (2005) - but not in a good way. The fact that Alison even tolerates Glen's presence adds an element that is too fantastical to comprehend. Even if she had the patience of a saint, the idea that she would befriend a man this awkward and spastic is totally unrealistic. They have zero chemistry. Their inconceivable romantic relationship is probably going to provide the comical backdrop for various circumstances throughout the season.
Luckily for them, the actor who plays Josh has great comedic timing and since he is actually an adolescent, the situations he finds himself in are believable as well as amusing. It's apparent that the writers are trying to juxtapose Glen's awkward experience of belatedly "growing up" and the age-appropriate awkward teen in Josh. Glen's behavior, however, is frankly both disturbing and sad. Stay tuned to find out just how Glen morphs into "The Winner," but only if you are willing to put up with a season of torturously unfunny comedy based around how much of a loser he really is.
