I have been a huge fan of Walton Goggins ever since he played Boyd Crowder on Justified. He is one of my favorite actors and if you watch Justified it's easy to see he is one of the most talented actors in Hollywood.
Because if this I make a point to watch whatever he is in.
However, in "The Unicorn" he never seemed quite comfortable in his role - never settled in - and as a result the show seemed clunky and never hit its stride.
In my opinion, the show was bolstered by a strong supporting cast. Michaela Watkins was the stand out to me - I loved her portrayal of Delia and got a few genuine laughs out of the scenes where she took center stage. Maya Robinson, Omar Miller, Ruby Jay, and Makenzie Moss were also standouts. These 5 knocked their characters out of the park
However, Jay & Moss - playing the daughters of Walt Goggin's character - were underutilized. Especially in season 2 - which relied too heavily on The relationship between Wade and Natalie Zea's character, "Shannon."
Love Natalie Zea, another Justified Alum. However, the relationship between Wade and Shannon kind've defeated the show's premise of him being a "unicorn." He got into a serious relationship after 1-2 dates total.
The end of season 1 and all of season 2 focuses on this - seems like more time should have been spent on him dating around and dealing with the difficulties and awkwardness that comes with dating after a long marriage that ended so tragically.
So the story seemed rushed to me.
While it had a strong supporting cast - it had a weak lead. The character seemed poorly written and - heartbreaking as it is to say about one of my favorite actors - the actor, Walt Goggins, seemed uncommitted, uninterested and miscast. In most episodes he seems like an SNL guest that is reading his lines - live on TV - for the first time ever. The delivery is always a little off - almost flat. And after watching him in other roles, specifically Justified's Boyd Crowder, I can only assume that he was uninterested in or uncommitted to the role of "Wade."
For me, it seemed like I was watching someone act as opposed to watching a story about a recent widower trying to figure things out with good friends and a loving family. To an extent, I feel the same way about Rob Corddry's character. Also miscast in my opinion and always felt a little out of place.
If you compare it to a show like Modern Family - that was a show that seemed to get into a good flow pretty quickly and the actors made you buy that you were watching a real family and their hijinks and shenanigans etc.
Furthermore, like most shows on TV right now. They got a little too caught up in the "woke" and the episodes that focuses on that - 1.) threw off what little momentum the show had and 2.) were done very poorly "you got my son a water gun?! Now I'm gonna have to have a talk with him about how he can never go outside with that or the police will shoot him." Really? That was the best you could come up? It just came across as hokey and insincere ... "we are doing this because we have to, not because we found a compelling way to incorporate it. Same with the episode where Delia had to learn about her privilege from Michelle.
The show really fell off in the second season and I think the cancellation was in the best interested of everyone - but I'm disappointed more effort wasn't put into this show because it could have been great.