Most critics like it, and the praise clusters on the ensemble. The cast of failed Hollywood creatives working as caterers, Adam Scott, Lizzy Caplan, Jane Lynch, Martin Starr and Ken Marino among them, is named again and again, with Starr’s deadpan and Marino’s Ron singled out more than once. The humour is called dry, sardonic and specific rather than loud, and several reviews find a melancholy about unfulfilled ambition underneath the jokes. Critics returning to it years later rate it more highly than those who reviewed it on arrival, and “overlooked” and “cancelled too soon” recur.
The reservations are mostly mild. The Telegraph notes few outright side-splitters, the Guardian finds some elements dated, and the AV Club thinks the first season takes a while to find its footing. The one real dissent is Variety, which at the time saw only tired clichés about L.A. actors waiting tables and a tone that is neither bittersweet nor funny. Six to one is a lopsided count, but the gap between that verdict and the warmest is wide.