'Intelligence' Preview: David Schwimmer's TV comeback was long overdue as he needed to break from Ross' shadow
Nick Mohammed's new workplace comedy is heading to NBC's brand new streaming platform 'Peacock'. And while it sounds like Netflix's Steve Carrell starter 'Spaceforce' that launched not all that long ago, bringing back yet another face from 90s comedy, 'Intelligence' will be David Schwimmer's giant TV comeback. Having spent most of his career famous for playing the whiny, weepy bad-luck nice guy Ross Geller on the iconic TV sitcom 'FRIENDS', Schwimmer's comeback has been long overdue.
His prominent return to the television screen comes long after his other castmates from the sitcom, such as Courtney Cox and Jennifer Aniston who had already made their mark on television screens, stepping out of the avatars they are most widely known for. Cox's obsessive controlling Monica from 'FRIENDS' was replaced by her femme fatale avatar in 'Cougar Town'. Similarly, the shallow, materialistic vapid Rachel Green isn't the identity Aniston associates with anymore, considering her #MeToo oriented drama 'The Morning Show' opened to rave reviews last year and is expected to arrive with a second season whenever filming can begin owing to the ongoing pandemic lockdown.
Lisa Kudrow shed her airheaded persona of Phoebe to play the very true to personal life protagonist Valerie in 'The comeback'. The character was a sitcom actress in the HBO dramedy. As for Matt Le Blac and Matthew Perry, their roles, panning through the genre, have moved on quite a bit from their 'FRIENDS' avatars. It was only Schwimmer who was stuck as the face for the most criticized nice guys from the 90s, for his somewhat sexist, self-pitying character Ross, who has been eviscerated by newer audiences for all of his problematic behaviors.
The trailer of 'Intelligence' teases Schwimmer playing an American boss-man Jerry Berstein at the UK's Government Communications Head Quarters, and while we expect him to be a lot like our beloved Michael Scott from 'The Office', looks like this avatar couldn't have come sooner for him. To add to that, Schwimmer will be joined by some of British comedy's finest in this originally Sky TV comedy where writer-creator Mohammed plays Jerry's fanboy from the start, Joseph. Sylvestra Le Touzel plays GCHQ boss Christine Clark, Jane Stanness stars as Mary, Gana Bayarsaikhan as Tuva Olsen, Eliot Salt as Evelyn, Oliver Birch as Quentin O'Higgins, Lucy Ware as Uma and many more.
'Intelligence' premiers on Peacock this July 15 with all 6 episodes.