SIRENS

**1/2 (out of ****)

Almost immediately, you recognize that Sirens is going to entirely fall on the heads of its three stars. And that’s a little scary, seeing as I don’t recognize two of them, and one of them I only know from After Scrubs. It’s a workplace comedy, but the quality of the show will rise and fall around these three dudes – the slacker, the black gay guy, the naive rookie – and the conversations they have while driving an EMT around Chicago (and oh boy, is it Chicago, as the characters find 15 different ways to not-so-organically fit the city and its icons into conversation). And despite not knowing a lot about these actors, and despite this being a USA show, and USA’s first attempt at comedy, the three guys kinda sorta pull it off.

Let’s make one thing clear: if this was the second episode of season three, this show would be way behind the curve, and probably would have never made it that far. But as a pilot, having to do all of the things that pilots need to do, it’s certainly a nice attempt. Sometimes the three guys get too quippy. Sometimes they replace “talking fast” with “being clever.” Sometimes entire conversations go on with nary a laugh. But these are the kind of crutches that can be replaced when actors and writers have had some time to better understand the characters. This first episode is filled with a kind of “forced rapport,” but, if you choke down whatever bile pilots give you, you can kind of see a future here.

Things like plots and backup characters are hardly important. After Scrubs Guy was dumped for not moving in with his girlfriend, and then there are some EMT missions, or whatever EMTs call their missions. Other than that, you don’t really have anything but three dudes hanging out. And (if it’s given enough time to gel ((which it won’t))) that might just be enough.

– Ryan Haley