It’s a sitcom about a odd romantic coupling from writers DeAnn Heline & Eileen Heisler (“Ellen,” “Three Sisters"). It stars Josh Cooke (who appeared on two episodes of “10-8”), Jennifer Finnigan (“Crossing Jordan”), Tammy Lynn Michaels (“Popular,” “The L Word”), Darius McCrary (“Kingpin”) and Tom Poston (“The Story of Us”) as a dying clown who lives in the female lead’s closet.
The Hollywood Reporter says:
… subpar script, over-the-top performances and exaggerated characters … maybe "offensive" isn't exactly the right word. Especially when "shrill" and "humorless" are available. …
Variety says:
… doesn't quite hold together … a show that feels more than anything like an exercise in quirky for quirkiness' sake. Despite a few laughs, the series is too self-conscious about being off-kilter. … everything about "Committed" screams "trying too hard," lacking the effortlessness necessary to make this sporadically clever house of cards withstand a stiff breeze. …
The Washington Post says:
Criminally Inane … What are meant to be lovable idiosyncrasies about these two toothsome New Yorkers could be classified as chronic personality disorders. They're more hyper than crickets, jumping at each other but often plopping into walls. It takes about 10 minutes to learn to hate them. … The great Tom Poston has only one line of dialogue on the premiere but gets laughs merely by walking across the room … NBC supplied additional episodes of the program, and in truth it does get a little better as it evolves. But most of the laughs are generated by the supporting characters … The show remains stubbornly inert, plagued by a droopy uneventfulness … The two central characters are too vacuous to command much attention or concern, however. They're so vacuous the show is a vacuum, and you know how nature abhors one of those. "Committed" offers good reasons why.
USA Today gives it three stars (out of four) and says:
… in a season in which sitcoms are neither getting nor deserving much affection, my advice to the comedy lovelorn is to give the somewhat twisted Committed a chance. As the two Jung lovers, Nate and Marni, Josh Cooke and Jennifer Finnigan make you root for a union that might otherwise make you fear for the future of mankind should they breed. Through skill and charm, they bring out the underlying sweetness in a show that is sometimes a little too frenzied in its efforts to be funny. … At times there does seem to be an air of desperation to Committed — not uncommon in today's comedy climate, in which nothing seems to be working. Here's the bottom line: I'm willing to go with the dying clown, but move him out of the closet and into his own room. … Unlike most sitcoms this season, Committed is worth nurturing. I'm not in love yet, but I like the show enough to hope it gets something resembling intelligent network support. …
9:30 p.m. Tuesday. NBC.
