'Tyler Perry's Assisted Living' Premiere Review: Nasty grandpa is the only highlight of same old sitcom tropes
Spoilers for 'Tyler Perry's Assisted Living' Epsidoes 1 and 2
Tyler Perry, if not for anything else, will be evergreen as his grandparent avatar Madea. Having arrived at the entertainment scene more than two decades ago, Perry donned the grey wig and floral dresses, presenting to his audiences a character unlike anything ever seen before. Following suit of his revolutionary ideas, Perry now brings to us the nasty, filthy, grumpy grandpa Vinny on 'Tyler Perry's Assisted Living' who just might be the highlight of jokes done and dusted al over the sitcom otherwise.
The series opens with a double episode premiere, 'The Piot 101' and 'A talk with Pa'. The pilot sees Vinny's grandson Jeremy (Ni'amh Lynn) move back into his Georgia home after losing his job. Jeremy also has a wife and two very displeased teenage kids in tow, who are struggling more than him with this new move. While their mother Leah (Courtney Nichole) tries to be as accommodating as one can be of bratty teenagers complaining about how life sucks (very realistic right there, mind you), Jeremy is clearly in over his head about his crazy grandfather's new business investment: a tattered old age home (hence the title).
Vinny wants to renovate this old home and turn it upside down for business purposes and for some reason he is able to convince Jeremy into sticking by his side although everyone knows its a dream next to impossible. On the way, jokes cracked are literally the most predictable ones that season sitcom viewers would be able to say out loud before the joke has even landed on the screen yet.
The only respite seems to be just how nasty the one hook-handed grandpa can be. Flipping through pages of fashion magazines, Vinny is your sleazy goofball from one of those 'American Pie' movies, the kind you would expect to be portrayed through the character of Steve Stiffler.
Instead, grandpa Vinny is old and Black, and hilarious when he wants to talk about his past sexcapedes in front of his grandchild and his family. Nobody wants to know about their grandparent's sex life, let alone want to think of them as sexual beings, but poor Jeremy — among the many things he has to sit through to accommodate this new life change is this as well.
The plot kicks off with added tension when desperate investors Mr Brown (David Mann) and his daughter Cora (Tamela J Mann) arrive. For some reason, they are heavily, deeply interested in Vinny's business ventures and want to invest in the old home. Vinny hates that and J Anthony Brown doesn't hold back when it comes to his character's expressions.
Having played the jovial fluffy funny guy in most productions so far, it's a drastic shift for the actor, comedian and radio personality, but he breathes life into Vinny in a way that one would say is the only saving grace for the character.
Brown's shared screentime with the Manns speaks volumes of their incredible chemistry too. The latter are long term collaborators of Perry's and have starred in his 'Madea' productions too, but in Vinny's story, they drift in with just as much ease as the grouch warms up next to them all the while emitting practically icicles in character.
It's a mixture of odds that could have been commended had the jokes been slightly more original. The potential for experimenting with this quirky character is ample, perhaps Perry just needs a new room of writers to cater to that. 'Tyler Perry's Assisted Living' will premiere two back-to-back episodes every Wednesday on BET.