NBC’s new series “Rise” seems formulated to follow in the footsteps of its previous high school hit “Friday Night Lights.” Along with “Hamilton” producer Jeffrey Seller, “Friday Night Lights” executive producer Jason Katims is one of the chief creators of “Rise,” a show which shares multiple similarities to Katims’ previous work. Like “Friday Night Lights,” “Rise” is also set in the high school of a blue-collar town and stars a supposedly inspiring white man as its protagonist. Unlike Katims’ previous show, however, “Rise” fails to instill confidence that said protagonist is anything other than a pompous, speechifying narcissist. While the series shows flashes of potential, they largely take place when drama teacher Lou Mazzuchelli (Josh Radnor) is offscreen. Going forward, the show would do well to focus more on the kids that Lou is purportedly helping.
Lou is introduced as a directionless English teacher who thinks he knows how to put on a better show than Stanton High School’s long-running director. His chief complaint? She’s put on “Grease” three times in the last decade, a seemingly minor offense that Lou treats as an affront to art itself. Stanton’s principal agrees to go along with him only in order to save money, and soon enough Lou’s behaving as if he’s God’s gift to theater. His plan is to put on a performance of “Spring Awakening,” a musical set in 19th-century Germany that centers on repressed teen sexuality. Unsurprisingly to all but Lou, this does not appeal to the conservative rust belt community of Stanton, Pa.
The main problem with Lou’s character is that the show simply assumes the audience will go along with his crusade to turn Stanton’s drama department into a home for high art — neglecting his family and troubled son in the process — without giving any real justification for his behavior. Lou seems oblivious to the world around him, which consistently bends to Lou’s whims, resulting in character after character acting unrealistically to ensure he gets his way. Even the drama teacher who Lou replaces, portrayed by a competent Rosie Perez, defies the school administration to stand up for him at the end of the premiere.
Other than Perez’s role as a teacher, Tracey Wolfe, there are a handful of performances that inspire hope that the show might eventually find its way. Ted Sutherland particularly shines as a young man named Simon, who chafes against his family’s conservative moral code when Lou casts him as a gay character. But most of the supporting characters are so one-note that the actors don’t have much material to work with. Lou’s family is especially guilty of this, with his wife showing little sign of a life independent from Lou, and his possibly-alcoholic son spending the whole episode sulking and acting confrontational. There are also attempts to give glimpses into the lives of the underrepresented and downtrodden — but they rarely move beyond tokenism, at least in the premiere.
The recurring sense is that “Rise” has bitten off more than it can chew. It’s hard to make a show with a definite protagonist while also providing a wide ensemble cast full of memorable characters, so the show settles for giving a cursory overview of each secondary character and hoping that the audience finds them sympathetic by giving each character a tragic backstory. But the problems with this approach are twofold — the lead character isn’t interesting, and it’s hard to make the others very sympathetic due to their one-dimensionality. Again, the show would do much better if it de-emphasized the role of Lou, making him simply one piece of the ensemble rather than the uncontested lead.
While one can imagine a genuinely heartwarming and affecting version of “Rise,” the show has to clear too many self-imposed hurdles to recommend the current iteration. For those who can stomach Lou, it may well be worth continuing to tune in to see if the show can get out of its own way. But until the showrunners realize that they have created not a sweet, inspiring drama teacher but an overly idealistic, condescending blowhard, they will be fighting an uphill battle. More than likely, the man at the show’s center will prove to be its fatal flaw.
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