I watched all of the episodes which were broadcast. I thought this series was okay, but it never really grabbed me and frankly, when I heard it was cancelled I was somewhat relieved, because I'd rather have reruns of "Big Bang Theory" or "Two and a Half Men" in between "HIMYM" and "TBG" rather than new episodes of Partners.
I liked "Will and Grace". I loved "Ned and Stacy". I wanted to love this show.
Perhaps given more time, the series would have found its feet.
The good: I'm not much of a judge of acting, but all the actors seem skilled and accomplished and played their roles well. I am a big fan of snappy, quick-witted dialog, such as one finds in the old Katherine Hepburn/Spencer Tracey comedies or "Bringing Up Baby", and this show tried to deliver that. The concept has potential and is rather clever and heart warming. Who doesn't want to watch two best friends from childhood making it in the world? Joe and Wyatt were good characters. Joe was intelligent and witty as written and portrayed. Brandon Routh did a great job of portraying a serene person happy with himself in a world in which he was a very odd duck indeed. Wyatt was a very original concept and I would have loved to have seen that developed further.
The not-so-good: The snappy dialog just wasn't quick witted enough. It was very hit or miss and it missed too often. It is tough and ambitious to deliver a show in that style, but if you're going to try, you need to execute well. Perhaps they would have got into the rhythm, but too many of the jokes weren't funny. Maybe I'm too old, but much of the humor just seemed sad or pathetic rather than funny. Still, I love that style. I had high hopes.
The Louis character, ultimately, wasn't funny; he was just pathetic. This is not a problem with Urie's delivery--that was excellent. It was a problem with the way the character was written.
At the beginning he was funny. After several episodes the impression I had was that he was good hearted, when it was convenient to him, but ultimately, a useless loser who was being carried in life by his best friend, Joe, and was ridiculously lucky that Wyatt was too naive to realize how much better he could do.
Louis as portrayed just wasn't a sympathetic character, unless one's goal in life is to sponge off your friends for support, and conduct your relationships as a needy, selfish leech. He was quick witted, but not sympathetic.
Perhaps they would have revealed his redeeming qualities in later episodes, but as shown, he didn't appear to have any. He earned the eight deadly words.
I guess Louis did organize that shop party/gallery opening thing for Ali, but the show hadn't shown enough of Ali for me to really care what happens to her at all. Plus, I just don't like Ali, so I didn't really care that Louis helped her.
I am utterly repulsed by Sophia Bush's clichéd mannerisms. Does she think she's a hip-hop diva? She's an attractive woman, but all the finger wagging, palm wiping and side to side head tilting screams, "Someone trying to pretend that they walked off of the stage of the music awards." Be what you are. Don't pretend you are what you're not. Even if that's not what's on her mind while she uses those mannerisms, that's how it looks. Like an adolescent imitating what she saw her favorite musician do last week.
Jessica Alba did the same thing in "The Fantastic Four" and her performance was similarly horrible. A pretty face and slender symmetrical body can only make up for so much.
Additionally, those kind of pop-culture up-to-the-moment mannerisms portray a character who is not a believable partner for Joe as portrayed.
Joe and Wyatt were good characters. Joe was intelligent and witty as written and portrayed. Wyatt was a very original concept and I would have loved to have seen that developed further. Unfortunately, Wyatt almost always came with a large helping of the selfish egotist Louis.
Anyway, I wanted to like this show, and I kind of almost did, but mostly, I found it disappointing. I think it needed some more polishing and balancing. Louis needed to be given some redeeming qualities -- or at least a tiny bit of competence at his career. Ali needed some aspect of her character to be something which would have appealed to Joe, other than, "Great body, babe." And a director needed to tell her to lose the ten-year-old-doing-diva mannerisms.
The humor needed to be more funny and less mean, sad, or pathetic.
