A to Z - Series Premiere - Review: The Legend of Zelda (and Andrew)

Credit: NBC

That said, what's interesting about A to Z, which comes to us from creator Ben Queen and executive producers Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, is that its take on destiny doesn't necessarily translate to "forever". We're told at the beginning by the Narrator (Katey Sagal) that the relationship between its two leads, love-obsessed Andrew (Ben Feldman) and emotionally-guarded Zelda (Cristin Milioti), will only last 8 Months, 3 Weeks, 5 Days, and 1 Hour. Giving that relationship a clear end point is a bold move: the highs we inevitably witness will have a bittersweet undercurrent to them, since we know the relationship doesn't last; meanwhile, the lows will help us see the cracks beginning to form, allowing us to speculate on how the relationship will end. Does Zelda dump Andrew or will it be the other way around? Does one of them cheat? What is the cause of their breakup? In a lot of ways, revealing the future of the relationship makes it feel a bit like How I Met Your Mother, and not just because Cristin Milioti played the title character. The two series have far more in common than meets the eye.

Credit: NBC

While both comedies seem organized around a mystery of sorts ("Who is The Mother? How does Ted meet her?" on the one hand, and "How does Andrew and Zelda's relationship end?" on the other), neither show really seems to be about those mysteries. At least not in a way the show seems intent on being. As the narrator explains at the start and at the end of "A Is For Acquaintances", A to Z is "the comprehensive account of their relationship, from A to Z." In essence, the show is telling us from the start that it's more about the journey than it is about the end point. Similarly, How I Met Your Mother essentially illustrated how unconcerned it was with its central question by how far out of its way it went to keep from answering it. So the shows find common ground with each other (and with every other work of fiction worth its salt, actually) in purporting to be about more than just the destination of a story. But even at the level of premise, they have a lot in common: Andrew's obsession with destined love is very Ted Mosby-esque, and the framing narrative of his and Zelda's destined meeting seems to share a lot with Ted's inevitable first meeting with The Mother, right down to the realization that they've encountered each other before. Hell, Andrew and Zelda's first date seems to share a lot with Ted and Robin's, as he scares her off by essentially confessing his love right away. These shows may be different on the surface, but they share enough DNA to pass for siblings. However, A to Z is definitely enjoyable in its own right, as "A Is For Acquaintances" is a downright charming pilot, even with all the HIMYM connotations on the surface.

Credit: Trae Patton/NBC

A to Z quickly distinguishes itself in its pacing, delivering a pilot that's pretty breezy, by any standard. Andrew and Zelda meet within the first few minutes, as lawyer Zelda is attempting to get her friend's money back from the dating website at which Andrew works. The two make plans to go on a date after realizing they work in the same office complex, but things go immediately awry when Andrew deduces that he's met Zelda before at a concert for a band they both hate. Andrew gets overzealous and begins describing how he and Zelda are meant to be together, prompting her to run like hell. She eventually tries to apologize for her reaction, but quickly reneges when she discovers Andrew has been trying to research her to figure out if the girl at the concert really was her. The usual romantic comedy misunderstandings arise, but it culminates in Zelda coming clean and admitting that she was at the concert, and that she does remember Andrew. Cue romantic music as the couple shares their first kiss, and...well, that's pretty much it.

Credit: Trae Patton/NBC

But it's all the stuff in-between that makes the pilot worth watching. Feldman and Milioti have tremendous chemistry, to say nothing of their ability in portraying their respective characters. Andrew is a hopeless romantic but not annoyingly so, while Zelda is emotionally rigid at times, but not off-putting in the least, thanks to her sense of humor. In lesser hands, these characters might have been harder to swallow. The writing is also pretty solid. A running gag has Andrew attempting to prove that the hoverboards from Back to the Future were real. It's a subplot that includes a funny cameo by Lea Thompson, and an amusing post-credits sequence (albeit a sequence with some really patchy CGI, not that I necessarily expect WETA Digital-level visuals from an NBC comedy pilot anyway). That said, I'm far less interested in the workplace aspect of the show, as Andrew's best friend/roommate Stu (Henry Zebrowski) and his boss Lydia (Christina Kirk) are pretty irritating, while Zelda's best friend Stephie (Lenora Crichlow) isn't much better. But perhaps those characters will soften a bit as the series rolls on. There's certainly potential here for a more well-rounded ensemble that becomes more interesting as the season continues, instead of less.

Overall, I found myself really enjoying A to Z. Maybe it's a little trite, but I think it's that kind of earnestness that makes the show special. It wears its heart on its sleeve, and it makes the show all the more endearing.