'American Classic' Review
- Dempsey Pillot
- 10 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Season One. [Episodes 1 - 2]
Aired On: MGM+.
Release Date: 03/01/26.
Genre: Comedy.
The Verdict: A Maybe
Steven Spielberg once called movies “a moving miracle.” But the same should be said about theater. Because coordinating actors, their actions and everything in between in real time sounds impossible until you see it done. All that hard work, as well as the power and resiliency of theater get the spotlight in the new MGM+ series, American Classic.
It’s a story we’ve seen before: a person who left their hometown and became wildly successful crashes and burns, only to return to try and redeem themselves. Here, said person is Richard Bean (Kevin Kline). When we meet Bean, he’s a seasoned Broadway star who just wrapped opening night for a revival of Shakespeare’s “King Richard.” After learning that a major critic has given him a negative review, he can’t help but confront him. Unable to control his personal theatrics, the exchange spirals into a meltdown. The meltdown goes viral. And Bean is told he needs to take a hiatus from the show to preserve his image.
At the same time, Bean gets news that his mother has died. With so much free time on his hands now, he decides to spend his break by going back to his hometown to mourn his mother with his family. But the mourning quickly spirals into more mania after he learns that his family-owned theater - and the town’s only art center - is on the verge of shutting down. To save it, he plans to put on what he calls an “American Classic” (cue the meme of Peter Griffin looking at the screen and saying, “Oh, that’s why they call it that”).
Fittingly, the play he decides to direct is Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town.” Often referred to as one of the greatest American plays ever written, it chronicles the events of a fictional town over the course of 12 years through the eyes of several residents. Although the series itself does not span the same amount of time, in the first two episodes there are hints it will similarly pick apart the lives of Bean’s family and other townsfolk as production of the show begins.
As a comedic character actor across screen and stage in real life, Kevin Kline is unsurprisingly hilarious as the show’s star, Richard Bean. Laura Linney is also great as his sister-in-law and the town’s mayor, Kristen, who appears to be the only person willing to call Bean out for his ridiculousness. Jon Tenney, Nell Verlaque, Len Cariou, and even Tony Shalhoub who round out the show’s supporting cast as Bean’s respective brother, niece, closeted father and agent, also do a great job at framing Bean’s humanity. Bean is not a bad person. He’s just annoyingly self-centered. The show’s humor continuously builds on how his character’s selfishness creates new problems, despite him always having the opposite intention.
Sadly, the characters are not enough to make up for the show’s other shortcomings. One of the main ones being how cheap the show looks. Considering this is produced by one of the richest companies on Earth, there’s no reason the production design should look outdated. The sets, the lighting and even the direction make the entire project feel like something that might have been on TV a decade ago. Maybe that’s done to lean into the idea of making something classic. Maybe it’s done to make the show feel like a play itself. Whatever the reason, it is t justified by the show’s substance.
Despite many humorous situations unfolding, the writing still feels very shallow. In one of the first episodes, the teenage niece Miranda (Verlaque) tries to talk to Richard about how “the world is falling apart” for her generation. While true, the exchange feels less like something an actual teenager would say to day and more like a vague attempt at relevance. And that’s probably just way to really describe the tone of the entire show.
The show does shine when it leans into being a love letter to independent art and theater. That’s probably because that’s what creators Michael Hoffman and Bob Martin know best. The show features some great Broadway cameos and Easter eggs too. But it struggles when it tries to become anything more.
American Classic isn’t bad, but the series seems fixated on preserving a version of America that no longer exists. The show Bean wants to put on is a portrait of America 100 years ago. He wants to use it to bring his town together. Yet he’s too selfish to realize that dwelling on the past prevents you from moving on to the future. And that, given the state of the country, the concept of calling anything an “American classic” feels more like a rejection of the progress we’ve made since - and the (mostly) better values we hold as Americans now.
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