Comedic actress Andrea Martin is a powerhouse, both on stage and on screen. She is the reason to watch NBC’s new dysfunctional family comedy, “Working The Engels.” The series premieres tonight at 9:30/8:30c on NBC.
While the family comedy moves so fast, you may find your head spinning; the jokes are funny and the cast is strong. Created by Katie Ford (“Miss Congeniality,” “Desperate Housewives”) and Jane Cooper Ford (“Listen Missy,” “Material World”), “Working The Engels” follows a mother and her three grown kids who must band together to keep their heads above water when their father and breadwinner passes away, leaving them a mountain of debt.
The Engels must all go to work running Dad’s storefront law firm, with one minor problem — daughter Jenna Engel (Kacey Rohl) is the only one who is qualified to practice law. Unfortunately for Jenna, this also means taking on her eccentric relatives as co-workers. Ceil (Andrea Martin), the self-absorbed and overly dramatic but fiercely protective mother works as the firm’s paralegal; Sandy (Azura Skye), a former pill-popper who has never worked a day in her life, is the receptionist and first line of defense at the firm; and Jimmy (Ben Arthur), a petty criminal and bad boy who is utterly devoted to his family, is the firm’s investigator. Jenna, the youngest sibling and “good one,” becomes the unlikely family patriarch, running the law firm and keeping her crazy family together. It’s not pretty, but it’s family.
