Matthew Perry plays Ben Donovan, a self-described "emotionally broken" man who manages a sports arena in San Diego. On his 40th birthday, Donovan has a bit of a breakthrough, realizing that he's selfish, narcissistic, and unreliable. Unfortunately... he's also not very funny. Sure, we loved seeing Perry on "Friends", but it's not actually enough to make us sympathize with his character. There's probably a "Friends" rerun playing on some other channel, anyway. The character makes a few vague attempts to change his ways, like offering to commit to co-worker Alice (Andrea Anders), who he's been sleeping with while seeing other people. The efforts are half-hearted, and by the end of the episode, Ben's remains unappealing.
The owner of the arena, Crystal (Allison Janney) is even less fun to watch. She's a racist pill-popper with a clown phobia that sets up an incredibly obvious punch line, since of course the circus is in town. Imagine Michael Scott, highly self-medicated, in heels, with money, on a power trip. It's less pretty than that. The characters don't have interesting relationships with each other. You get the impression that these people work together, hate it, and don't spare each other a second thought once they've left the arena for the day.
In other words this is one to stay away from.
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