'Night Court' is not guilty of comedy, just retro sitcom mediocrity

Google “Night Court” and the description “beloved sitcom” comes up quite a bit.

Which is doubtless why NBC is reviving it. It’s one of those remake/reboot projects in which cynical entertainment executives try to cash in on the faulty memory of people who think an old show or movie was better than it really was.

I mean, there was a “Power Rangers” movie in 2017.

No accounting for taste. Good thing for NBC, too.

The new “Night Court” isn’t horrible, and it certainly isn’t great. “Serviceable” comes to mind as a description.

Mostly it’s a weird little show, not quite sure what it wants to be in terms of comedy nor how much it wants to reference the original in lieu of staking out its own claim on sitcom mediocrity.

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The show leans in heavily on the memory of the late Harry Anderson

Scratch that. It wants to reference the original a lot, particularly the late Harry Anderson, who played Judge Harry Stone as an oddball magic-obsessed and compassionate jurist. In case you were not aware of all that, not to fear; the new show builds Stone into its DNA, literally. It stars Melissa Rauch as Judge Abby Stone, Harry’s daughter.

She’s not the goofball Harry was; instead she is the blue-sky optimist, seeing good in all of the freaky cases and defendants brought before her court. (One episode includes a couple who think they are vampires as well as a would-be werewolf.)

If that’s not enough nostalgia for you, the show also brings back John Larroquette as both producer and star, reprising his role as Dan Fielding, the arrogant prosecutor from the original show. Now he’s a public defender.

Despite the fact that he won so many Emmys for the role he finally asked to stop being nominated, I always found Larroquette an acquired taste.

Evidently I have acquired it. He is by far the best thing about the new show.

Almost by definition the new “Night Court” feels like a throwback, and not just because of its incessant references to the original show. It’s every bit a network-TV sitcom; obviously the cultural references have been updated and people use smartphones and computers, but the vibe is essentially unchanged from the first series’ run, from 1984-92.

Which is to say: broad. And the actors lean in on that, playing everything big — often too big. In particular, Lacretta as Donna Gurgs, the bailiff, and India de Beaufort as Olivia, the assistant district attorney, play to the back of the room more often than not.

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Larroquette is the best thing about the show. Overacting is the worst

Larroquette does not, and it is refreshing. Maybe it’s because he’s familiar with the role (despite the changes in the character, who is now a widower and not as, shall we say, aggressive in his pursuit of women).

Or maybe Larroquette is just a good actor. But watching him compared with everyone else makes it look as if they are bringing silent-movie overacting technique 20 years after sound arrived.

The show begins with Abby’s arrival to the Manhattan court, one of the youngest judges in the city, we’re told. She’s from “upstate,” which in her characterization might as well be the hills of West Virginia or something. She moves not only into her dad’s old courtroom, but his old office. Gurgs finds some old boxes Harry left behind, and it’s there she finds Dan’s number. She’s in need of a public defender, so she pays him a visit. She wants him back in the courtroom (he’s currently a process server).

Dan is hesitant but eventually comes on board, not surprisingly. From there it’s Trope City, with a couple of exceptions. Every now and then the show gets serious (not unlike the original), but it is not a seamless transition.

It’s funny — not sitcom funny, the other kind of funny — how the freedom of cable and streaming have changed audience sensibilities since the original “Night Court” was on the air. The new version could probably get away with more than it does, but people often make the mistake of thinking that a green light for language or violence or sex is what made non-traditional shows so much more satisfying.

That’s not it. It’s the freedom of imagination, and “Night Court” needs more of it.

'Night Court'

7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17 on Ch. 12 (KPNX).

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Night Court' TV review: John Larroqutte is only upside to the reboot