Coming home can be complicated for a big star. Either they’ve made it and everyone is jealous of them, or they left in a bad way that ensured that those still there aren’t happy to see them again. For self-obsessed Broadway actor Richard Bean (Kevin Kline), his ego is certainly too big to fit within the confines of his hometown, but the problem he has after torching what’s left of his reputation is something altogether different: he doesn’t like what’s happened to the place he used to know and is convinced that he’s the only one who can save it.
Richard makes the typical mistake of anyone who doesn’t like what’s been said about them in a review and decides to confront the critic (Stephen Spinella), which quickly turns sour and leads to his latest project being cancelled. After the death of his mother, he returns home to a father (Len Cariou) who is constantly coming out as gay and a brother, Jon (Jon Tenney), and sister-in-law, Kristen (Laura Linney), who have turned the town’s theater, which used to put on prestige productions, into a restaurant that presents far less premiere fare while guests are dining. With much money needed to keep it afloat, Richard prepares to share his genius with the people around him, who don’t realize quite the journey they’re about to take with this actor-director who thinks he’s god’s gift to man.
American Classic comes from creators Michael Hoffman and Bob Martin, whose past credits include The Last Station and The Prom, respectively. Their partnership produces something that feels very light, an ode to past times which doesn’t necessarily involve a lot of depth in the charting of its characters’ story arcs. It’s not too difficult to imagine what Richard might have been like in his prime, but at this point, talent notwithstanding, he’s insufferable. He might have what it takes to bring this town together, but his character is so irritating that rooting for his success feels like a losing take.
Though Kline got his start on television in the soap opera Search for Tomorrow, much of his career since then has been in film and on the stage. After a cantankerous role in the Apple TV+ limited series Disclaimer, Kline returns to his comedy roots with a performance that leans into self-indulgence, making Richard as believable as he is intolerable. He’s not completely irredeemable, and the moments in which he does show even the slightest affinity or care for others help to humanize him. Tenney, best known for The Closer, is considerably more endearing, and while this is far from Linney’s strongest work, she still imbues Kristen with a frustrated determination that makes her worth following. From the ensemble, the clear standout is Nell Verlaque as Richard’s niece, an aspiring actress herself, who feels like the most three-dimensional of all the people in this sprawling cast.
American Classic is designed from the start to keep going past this initial eight-episode start, with each season focused on a different Richard Bean production that will in turn shed light on his extended family dynamic. This first outing suggests that it might be worthwhile to return to these characters, but this show’s content doesn’t feel especially dramatic or vital. The stakes aren’t especially high and there always seem to be creative solutions that emerge to solve major problems that just moments earlier felt catastrophic. As light entertainment that, episode to episode, runs just over thirty minutes, American Classic delivers a bit of nostalgia for simpler times, far away from advancing technology or troubling geopolitics, where the biggest threat to anyone’s livelihood is that their ego might be outshone by someone else’s.
Season grade: 6/10
