What’s the name of this show? Speechless  When does it premiere? Wednesday 21 September at 8.30pm ET on ABC.  What is this show about? Maya Dimeo (Minnie Driver, with her British accent intact) is a hell-raiser of a mother who wants to make sure that her son JJ (Micah Fowler), who uses a wheelchair and can’t speak due to cerebral palsy, has a normal life. That’s kind of hard when your mother is the least normal member of the PTA.  So this is another ABC family sitcom? Yes. Honestly the network has really been hitting it out of the park with these lately. Between Blackish, Fresh Off the Boat, the Real O’Neals and Dr Ken, ABC’s sitcom lineup is primetime television’s most diverse. But none of it would work if they weren’t all funny as heck.  This is funny? It sure is, and laughs come from a number of places, not just JJ’s condition and the difficulty it brings. Maya moves her family to the “worst house in the best neighborhood” so that JJ can go to a good school where he’ll have his own aide that can speak for him. That means they live in the suburban version of squalor, with doors falling off their hinges every time someone tries to slam one. There are also some great gags thanks to JJ’s new school, which is breaking its arm patting itself on the back for their inclusivity, which isn’t always as benevolent as they would like to believe.  What about the rest of the family? While Maya is the focus, her middle son Ray (Mason Cook) gets a lot of screen time as well. He’s the straight man in a family of misfits who just wants a chance for his needs to matter more than his brother’s do. Youngest daughter Dylan (Kyla Kenedy) is a budding track star with an adorable rage problem, which is funnier than it sounds. The hidden gem of the family is sardonic dad Jimmy (John Ross Bowie) who seems like the normal one until you get to know him.  And don’t count out JJ, who is clever and sarcastic, often speaking through his aide, Kenneth (Cedric Yarbrough), who packs quite a comedic punch himself both when cozying up to JJ and confronting Maya when she’s at her most ridiculously bombastic.  Is it ever exploitative of JJ? No, the humor comes from either his mother overreacting to sleights against her son or in people’s reaction to his condition, never at the expense of him. Creator Scott Silveri (who worked on Friends, Joey and Go On) grew up with a brother with a disability. He knows the terrain and how to navigate it without causing offense. For what it’s worth, Fowler delivers quite a performance. It’s not like he’s just sitting there in a chair – he is reacting, engaging and delivering some of the show’s best gags.  Is it good? Absolutely. Like the best of ABC’s family comedies it is about ridiculous people put in everyday situations. It’s like every one of their comedies is a fish out of water story where the family unit is up against the oppressive normalcy of the rest of society. I guess you can’t help it when your family stands out because it is the block’s only black family, Asian family or family with a valid handicap placard on the car.  But Speechless can hold its own with the network’s other heavyweights, mostly because the family is ridiculous in its own special way. The premise could easily be saccharine or preachy but it veers away from that and isn’t afraid to show its characters as flawed as everyone else. In one scene Ray and Jimmy sit at the bottom of a hill so they can watch cars bottom out when they get to the bottom, laughing at others’ misfortune. Maya is at her most grating when hectoring school officials for not having an adequate handicap ramp or trampling the school’s flower bed to get people to sign a petition.  If the show has any problem, it’s Maya. She is – how can I put this delicately – very intense, bordering on unlikable. It’s one thing to take the hard line when it comes to her son’s wellbeing, but it’s another thing to flout the city’s traffic laws so she can get to the diner in time to redeem a free breakfast coupon. The first makes her a responsible parent in a tough situation. The latter makes her something of a jerk. Hopefully that will soften in subsequent episodes.  Should I watch this show? Yes, particularly if you’re a fan of funny, slightly edgy, but not entirely dark comedies. Speechless fits right into ABC’s diverse roster but stands apart as well with a bit of a darker tone and jokes that fly faster than even Maya can drive on her way to cash in a coupon.
The Oscar nominee anchors a new family comedy that features a son with cerebral palsy, but it’s about much more than disability