NBC's Perfect Harmony has one of the most confusing pilots of the fall

The Hollywood Reporter

In theory, Bradley Whitford  has the perfect role as a former Princeton choral director who is hired to lead a small-town church choir. But the script of the pilot episode is too weak and too rushed, says Daniel Fienberg. "From here, you can guess the drill. He'll teach them. They'll teach him. And maybe by the time the choir competes at regionals, this discordant group of outsiders will, as a unit, finally be in… perfect harmony," says Fienberg. "That seems like a fairly reasonable template for the first season of a TV show, right? A little Glee, a little Pitch Perfect and a little Mr. Holland's Opus? Instead, what probably would have been a 100-minute feature film becomes a confusingly gutted 21-minute pilot in which every plot machination is unmotivated, every character shift illogical and every attempted emotional moment unearned."

ALSO:

• Perfect Harmony's pilot could' ve backfired without Whitford: "T he part of a know-it-all guy swaggering in to impart his superior knowledge is a time-honored TV tradition, but also a very tired one, so the moments that Whitford takes to show Arthur’s reluctantly human side aren’t just a relief, but necessary," says Daniel D'Addario. "They’re also, as anyone who’s seen a similar premise knows, rather inevitable."
• Perfect Harmony becomes too predictable halfway through its pilot, which is never a good sign
• Bradley Whitford is glad to be be back on NBC: "I mean, look it sounds stupid and of course, you’re dealing with these big corporations in reality, but I really do, NBC even before West Wing, was a place that was interested in working with me," he says. 'It’s really kind of been a home, and NBC has this history of these amazing comedies that still hold up perfectly. Jason and I knew that we wanted this to go to NBC because they have a history of doing these quality comedies that hold up, and they know how to develop and take care of them. You can feel the heritage of Parks and Recreation and The Office. We definitely share that DNA."