Netflix’s ‘The Kominsky Method’ is Not Your Typical Chuck Lorre Show

The Kominsky Method will inevitably draw comparisons to HBO’s Barry. Premiering Friday (November 16), Chuck Lorre’s new eight-episode Netflix series centers on the friendship between revered Hollywood acting coach Sandy Kominsky (Michael Douglas) and his longtime agent Norman Newlander (Alan Arkin). The Kominsky Method is the thematic inverse of Barry, focusing on the teacher instead of the student, and while the two shows ostensibly exist in the same vocational orbit, they’re quite different in both tone and humor. Bill Hader’s Barry finds solace in acting, while Sandy and Norman attempt to stave off the feeling of isolation through the cozy comforts of friendship.

The Kominsky Method isn’t the type of series you’d expect from Chuck Lorre. The sitcom maven behind commercially successful CBS multi-cam comedies like Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, and Mom has a distinct style. Love it or hate it, you can’t argue with the results. Lorre’s built an empire on laugh tracks and familiarity, but The Kominsky Method is different. The series deals with aging, loss, and emotional detachment in an authentic manner. Lorre abandons the laugh track and embraces genuine issues with heart and vulnerability. The series is marketed as a comedy, but it’s at its best when it eschews cheap laughs and instead focuses on poignant realism.

The sitcom boasts an impressive ensemble that includes Nancy Travis, Sarah Baker, Lisa Edelstein, and Emily Osment, but The Kominsky Method succeeds due to the theatrical finesse of Douglas and Arkin.

The friendship between Sandy and Norman is by far the most entertaining aspect of The Kominsky Method. Alan Arkin is sensational as he toggles between sage voice of reason and irascible lost soul. Lorre isn’t typically known for drama or nuance, but the show treats the inevitability of aging and death with humor and grace. The first four episodes are more dramatic than comedic, which serves the story well. The series still has moments that’ll remind you that it’s from the mind of Chuck Lorre — there’s an abundance of lazy dick humor in Episode 3 and the sitcom could cut the number of prostate jokes in half — but it unquestionably possesses depth. Lorre’s first Netflix series, the critically-reviled Disjointed, seemed like it was copy and pasted from his drafts folder, but The Kominsky Method is a sentimental story about being forced to adapt to a new reality late in your life.

The sitcom could survive on the star power of Douglas and Arkin, but Nancy Travis and Sarah Baker also deliver standout performances. Travis portrays Lisa, a self-assured single mom from Sandy’s class, while the perpetually underrated Baker plays Sandy’s daughter, Mindy. Both Travis and Baker excel in their supporting roles, and my only complaint is that they don’t have more screen time.

Then again, more of any character means less of Alan Arkin, and there’s no such thing as too much Arkin.

Chuck Lorre has mastered the art of the multi-cam comedy. The Kominsky Method proves he’s also capable of creating an entertaining single-cam series.

Stream The Kominsky Method on Netflix