REVIEW: ‘Captain Fall’ Struggles To Deliver

Jonathan Fall (Jason Ritter) comes from a family with a long tradition of being captains. Unfortunately for him, he struggles to live up to his family’s legacy. But he gets a big break when he is offered the chance to captain a cruise ship and show everyone that he can live up to his family’s expectations. There is just one small catch. The ship is a front for countless illegal operations, from human trafficking to the slaughter of endangered animals. But he is blissfully unaware of these felonies going on under his nose in Captain Fall.

This series tries to set up its comedic moments by having its overly gullible and eager-to-please protagonist manipulated, harassed, and mistreated throughout the season’s ten episodes. While his obliviousness to the goings on aboard ship sometimes yields a few laughs, Captain Fall‘s attempts at comedy where his family is concerned never comes close to landing. His brother Tanner’s (Adam Devine) only reason to exist is to sexually harass others and verbally abuse Jonathan. The sheer repulsiveness of the character makes it so nothing he ever does comes close to funny, but rather makes every scene he is in a regrettable slough. Well, except when he eventually gets what’s coming to him. That I didn’t mind.

Jonathan’s parents are equally abhorrent. Blake and Alexis Fall (Christopher McDonald and Alexis Neuwirth, respectively) exist only to demean and put down Jonathan unless they think they can use him for something. Like their oldest son, their personalities are so over-the-top on the obnoxious scale that I came to dread every scene they were in. While the viewer is clearly supposed to dislike Jonathan’s family, taking it this far simply detracts from the viewer’s ability to enjoy the show.

While life on land is a nearly complete disaster in Captain Fall, life at sea is better, if still not great. The best part of the show comes from the primary crew that has to operate the ship’s illicit operations and keep Jonathan in the dark. The ship’s Director of Activities, Liza(Lesley-Ann Brandt), is the center of most of the show’s biggest successes. While she begins the series as an amoral criminal who looks down on her new captain with utter contempt, she eventually begins to see how sweet and compassionate Jonathan is, and it begins to have an impact on her conscious. How she juggles both sides of the ship’s functions leads to some mad dash moments that can be humorous, though this humor does struggle against the show’s core narrative element.

The crimes perpetrated by the ship’s crew often make laughing at unreasonable situations impossible. Concepts like human trafficking don’t make for funny content. The best example of this comes when the unknowing Jonathan has his picture taken with a young boy he believes is simply another cruise patron, but is really an indigenous person about to be sold to a human zoo. The photo of the smiling captain and the broken child is intended to bring laughs at Jonathan’s cluelessness. Unfortunately, the concept overshadows the cheap laugh, producing a simply uncomfortable moment.

The last problem that Captain Fall struggles with is the lead himself. While Jonathan is a nice guy, always trying to help people, he isn’t entertaining. His social awkwardness commands too much of his personality, quickly becoming tiring as the show moves on. If he were a side character, he might be endearing, but as the lead he fails to carry his weight for most of the show. It is only in the last couple of episodes that he begins to come out of his shell a bit and actually starts to entertain. His growing comfortability with Liza and the rest of the crew sees him initiating things aboard ship, giving his character a bit more to make him interesting than just being awkward.

Captain Fall fails due to its often abrasive cast, struggling lead, and core narrative concept that doesn’t feel like it belongs in a comedy. While the series does manage to hit the mark a handful of times, it is not nearly enough to make me recommend this watch to anyone.

Captain Fall is streaming now on Netflix.