The World's Common Tater

Ordinary Joe aired last night at 10PM on NBC. I’m old and tired so I had to wait until this morning to watch it. Here are my thoughts.

The Premise

Joe is late to his college graduation. This leads to him bumping into another graduate, Amy, with whom he shares an instant connection. After the ceremony he has three choices: pursue Amy, go to the shore with his best friend/sometimes more than friend Jenny, or leave with neither and have dinner with his family. We then flash forward ten years where we see three different timelines, one for each of these decisions.

Tater’s Thoughts

I’m still a little on the fence on this one. I like James Wolk and he does a good job playing the three different versions of Joe: rock star, cop, and nurse. It is interesting to see how one decsion can dramatically alter one’s life. I once wrote about some of the turning points in my life. It’s easy to see how a change in some of these could have resulted in a very different life. I like that his best friend, Eric, is a constant in all three lives. I liked it enough to watch a couple of more episodes to see where it goes. I can defintely see becoming invested in these lives and the relationships with Amy and Jenny. I can also see getting frustrated with the constant move from one timeline to another and, thus, not being fully invested in any of them.

Some of the issues I had with the show –

The way too coincidental way a politician shows up in all three versions of his life.

How Jenny somehow made a different life choice in the two versions where Joe did not go with her. It seems like her decision would have been constant in those timelines.

I would like to see more of his life in the ten years we skipped to show more of how each deicsion led to where he is in life. I get the impression we are only moving forward from here.

Tater’s Recommendation

If you like dramas like This Is Us and A Million Little Things I think you might like this one. It is worth a watch unless you hate dramas and romance.