Courtesy of NBC
Ordinary Joe is the latest NBC show to premiere. It follows a man named Joe on his college graduation day. Joe is late for his graduation and meets Amy. Amy is also running late for graduation. They run into each other and have this little moment. After graduation, Joe runs into his friend Jenny. Jenny tells Joe to come to her parents' beach house because she needs to tell him something. Joe says he might show up after his family dinner. Joe then meets up with his best friend Eric. Eric sees Joe looking at Amy and asks him what that is about. Joe explains the situation with Amy and Eric tells Joe he has three choices. The three choices are: go to the beach house with Jenny, ask out Amy, and go have dinner with his family. Each choice leads to different path in Joe's life.
After that opening scene, we see three different Joe's ten years later. The first path of going to the beach house with Jenny sees Joe married to Jenny and has a son named Christopher. Joe is a nurse at a hospital and works the night shift. Joe's marriage is falling apart because he rarely speaks to his wife and doesn't open up to her. The second path of Joe asking out Amy sees Joe and Amy married with Joe living his dream of being successful music star. He is rich and famous but sometimes he wants to feel ordinary. Joe and Amy are trying to get pregnant but they can't. This causes a lot of strain on that marriage because Joe desperately wants to be a father. The third path of Joe going to the family dinner shows Joe following in his dad's footsteps in becoming a NYPD police officer. Joe's dad dies on 9/11 trying to save people in the twin towers. In this timeline, Joe is a single man who is focused on work. Joe runs into Amy ten years later and asks her out at their college reunion. The episode ends with Jenny revealing to Joe that if Joe came to the beach house, she was going to tell him she was pregnant and he was the father. This surprises Joe the music star because he realizes he is a dad and desperately wants meet his son. Jenny reveals to Joe that she put their son up for adoption. Joe vows to find and meet his son. Police officer Joe meets Jenny at the reunion and meets his son. He doesn't know its his son and Jenny doesn't tell him its his son. That is how episode one ends.
I was intrigued to watch this show because I like the concept. We all face choices in our lives and at the time we don't realize how those choices affect our lives. But later in life we realize that one choice can change our whole lives. We start to imagine if we made the right decision or if we should have went down a different path. I liked the pilot episode and I am excited to see more of the three different lives of Joe. I wonder if we will every find out which choice he actually made. My only concern with this series is its duration. I don't know how a show like this could last for 4 to 6 seasons. But I do like the concept and its originality is what I appreciate the most.
Ordinary Joe stars James Wolk, Natalie Martinez, Elizabeth Lail, Charlie Barnett, and David Warshofsky. You can watxh Ordinary Joe on Mondays at 10est only on NBC.
What do you think of of the pilot episode of Ordinary Joe? Leave it in the comments below.
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