There is something very flimsy about ABC’s new sporadically funny comedy ‘The Knights of Prosperity.’ Eugene (Donal Logue), a janitor mournfully noting his twentieth anniversary in a dead-end job, makes a somewhat apt comparison of his mottled partners in crime to the thieves of “Ocean’s 11”: both heist stories are high on concept and low on meaty backstory. What a brilliantly entertaining idea it is to have lowly, blue-collared Americans clumsily coming together to take money from celebrities. It’s an idea, though, that may lose its steam before it actually builds up.
‘Knights’ misses some obvious opportunities to slow down its inappropriately fast-moving plot and introduce a little history to its characters in exchange for few, sometimes quiet laughs. It takes less than ten minutes in the pilot for Eugene to be rejected by a bank official for a loan and to assemble the inept group of novice criminals. Eugene’s certainly a suitable and likeable leader of the pack, but there appears to be nothing to his partners in crime.
Though the character idiosyncrasies are disappointingly sparse, the few that do come through are refreshingly witty. The group’s unknowing college intern, Louis, a Communications student and lover of Meredith Brooks’ “Bitch,” is the best-developed minor player. It is here where the series gets in some surprisingly biting lines of pop parody.
There are too many moments in ‘Knights’ where it feels like its writers are as hapless as the characters themselves. Promising in its heady concept and strangely watchable cast, ‘Knights’ may be too kind for its own good. If it doesn’t start taking the sardonic stabs at celebrity culture it easily could (and should) be, the valiant concept will become nothing more than a commendable failure.
