Matt LeBlanc’s ‘Man with a Plan’: Bland, Bland, Bland

The new CBS sitcom “Man with a Plan” features Matt LeBlanc as a recent stay-at-home dad, a premise that could have been somewhat engaging. Yet based on the staleness of the pilot, perhaps LeBlanc should have stayed home himself.

The former “Friends” star plays Adam Burns, a contractor from Pittsburgh whose wife, Andi (portrayed by Liza Snyder), goes back to work as a nurse after the youngest of their three children starts kindergarten. “I gave you three perfect babies, and as far as I can tell, you ruined them,” he soon laments to her after seeing new sides of their personalities. On drives to and from school the kids—messy, fatigued, and very hungry from a long day—begin to lose the initial excitement of spending time with their easygoing dad when he does not meet their demands. In response to this, Adam feeds one of his children the only snack he has in his car: a Listerine strip.

Adam’s incompetent plight is exacerbated when he learns that Andi had signed up to be “room mom” and that (as no other parents offer to take the role) he must fulfill these responsibilities. In this capacity, he meets a stay-at-home dad of four years, whom he initially views as pitiful but whose veteran experience he soon begins to emulate. Specifically, upon hearing that the other man rewards his children with scratch cards for good behavior, Adam discovers the glory of incentives. He successfully implements a Wifi password that changes daily so that his kids will perform their chores before relaxing after school; this action impresses his wife and is his only success since adopting his position.

The problem with “Plan” is not its simple concept but rather its failure to expand upon many aspects of it. The pilot starts with Adam and Andi preparing to announce their modified duties to their children, but it could have been more interesting to depict their conversations leading up to the decision. Furthermore, the episode never shows Adam in his career as a contractor (a job that he continues but restructures after becoming the primary caretaker of his children). The writers missed an opportunity to display the reactions of his coworkers to the adjustment. Would they mock him for taking on some of his wife’s responsibilities or hold their tongues? A show that has the potential to be a compelling exploration into gender roles has, so far, failed to be nuanced or insightful.

The series is plagued not by poor acting but rather by subpar writing. Both LeBlanc and Snyder are convincing in their roles as conventional parents, and most of the show’s minor roles are also competently acted. But regrettably, the show simply isn’t funny. The only memorable joke of the half-hour pilot comes when Adam tells Andi to “cut the cord and go to work” when she takes too long to kiss her youngest daughter before her first day of kindergarten. The rest of the humor relies largely on either cliché situational irony (“Guess who’s room mom now. Me!”) or ignorance (“Hormones? My mom had those”). Finally, the show has not yet developed the personalities of the three children—who seem to descend stairs and walk around school together, despite age disparities—enough for them to contribute to the comedy.

Only one chapter of the Burns’ story has been written, and perhaps “Man with a Plan” will improve with age. Adam believes that raising children is similar to building a house: Both require a “strong foundation.” Ultimately, such an infrastructure is precisely what this sitcom desperately needs, and it seems unlikely that one will be constructed in the coming weeks.