Nisha Ganatra directs Mindy Kaling, Emma Thompson and Hugh Dancy in this comedy where an Asian female “diversity hire” joins the all white, all male writing room for a late night talk show fronted by a frosty and complacent comedian.
Pleasant enough but the comedy is too light and all but disappears after the midway mark. After that we are in firm drama territory but again the plot mechanics are so predictable so as to be perfunctory. Feels like something inoffensively forgotten from the 1980s. Yet sometimes you just want it that easy and digestible.
6