Night Court was back with a new episode this week after a short break, and we jumped into the deep end of Abby’s wedding planning, in a show that really wasn’t very funny but did manage to get in some emotional weight when it was all over.

First, we have to talk about the laugh track on the show. It’s already a risk to have a laugh track in 2023 but the show didn’t do a great job with it this week. None of the “laughs” seemed to be very convincing or loud enough. It was especially bad in the lunch room. There is a half a second pause that shouldn’t be there.

But if the laugh track seemed to have a day off, it may have been because the show simply wasn’t very funny this week. Neil has turned into more of an annoying rival than an interesting one. Gurgs and Olivia fighting was hit and miss, and we saw the stripper stuff coming from a mile away after the first scene.

The episode wasn’t a complete loss though. We did get some emotional pull when Abby realized that her dad wouldn’t be at the wedding. Harry Anderson remains such a big part of the show spiritually and I think that the writers deciding to take the time to acknowledge him right now was a timing victory.

But does anyone think that this wedding will actually take place?

Happy couples make for bad TV. Night Court would be better off having the wedding get derailed and having Abby work through that next season. You can’t waste Pete Holmes though. You’d still have him hovering around in some capacity.

Let’s see where they go.

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