A to Z - A is for Acquaintances - Review : "How I Met Cristin Milioti Again"

"This is a full review of the Pilot Episode, if you've not already watched it be advised that it will contain spoilers"

A to Z has NBC's charm and Ben and Cristin's amazing chemistry. It's always annoying when the two leads feel clumsy and awkward around each other, but these two don't, their in it 100% and that's one of the perks of watching A to Z.

A to Z uses classic themes, romanticism and destiny... throughout the pilot, It moved much faster than I anticipated which I enjoyed. The casting of Ben and Cristin is excellent, praise to the casting director whom must have loved Cristin on HIMYM. The supporting characters weren't as fleshed out, though Stephie is my favorite so far, she's quite funny, you may remember her from ABC's cancelled Back in the Game. A to Z was my most anticipated NBC comedy and the pilot won me over.

Comedies are nice escapes from the addictive world of binge watching (or just watching Drama's in general), they only require 25 minutes at most of your life and not a weekend locked up in your bedroom. Trust me I know people who don't sleep trying to get through a season of Orange is the New Black or House of Cards. Drama's usually tire a person out, all the secrets, twists and turns and sad character deaths, I mean how many people are still waiting for Red to reveal he's Liz's father or rather that Berlin is?

As a fan of the late NBC comedies The Michael J. Fox Show, Up All Night and soon to be ending Parks and Recreation, I was hoping they would have something that would interest me, they did, A to Z amongst others; Marry Me, Odyssey, Emerald City, Mission Control and Constantine.

NBC was grabbing all the actors I like, Krysten Ritter (Don't Trust the B---- in Apt 23, Mission Control), Casey Wilson (Happy Endings) and Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies, Odyssey), so I was absolutely happy to see that Cristin Milioti was cast in A to Z.

As a fan of How I Met Your Mother, I was like most fans saddened by the death of her character Tracy Mosby otherwise known as The Mother, so naturally when I found out she was taped to A to Z, I followed the show like any other normal fan does. I kept hoping it would be picked up because what else does a 19 year old have to do but keep an eye out for pilots. Later on, NBC announced they were picking up the pilot to series, I was overjoyed and here we are now.


This is my comprehensive account of NBC's A to Z.
We begin by being introduced to Ben via narration by Katey Sagal (Leela from Futurama). The narration is very symbolic to romantic movies, it was used in Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson's Bridesmaids for example and it compliments the show well as well as separating itself from other half hour comedies, which is an added bonus.

Before I start my review, I must say the opening credits are awesome (symbolic of a calender), you can tell a lot of effort went into them, instead of the cheaper looking and easier option of just showing the Title, which I find annoying. Personally a nice title sequence, for me, shows theres been effort put into the show, especially during the editing process. It also reiterates the fact they will date for 8 months, 3 weeks, 5 days and 1 hour and is aesthetically pleasing to the eye. i noticed that the series will be using A to Z, as there episode title names, which is brilliant, I admire when writers put effort into the titles of their shows.

We're introduced to Andrew and Zelda and we see where they are in their lives, through the use of flashbacks which are quite reminiscent of CBS's How I Met Your Mother and more recently ABC's Mixology, both enjoyable shows, and help us learn more about the characters. The colors of the cars are representative of the distinct personalities of their characters, Andrew is an optimist and Zelda is practical.


Like any classic romantic comedy, they meet awkwardly and then begin getting to know each other texting with the occasional emoji. The process of this happening moves rather quickly through montage, which helps the story move along nicely. On their first actual date Zelda tells Andrew of her annoying boyfriend "dragging" her along to a concert at the Avalon in 2012 since she's reminded by the music playing in the background. The use of music is really poetic in romantic movies, it sights the start and end of a relationship, the best and worst times and in Zelda's case the downright annoying times. "Oh my god, where you there" was then greeted by Andrew's sudden epiphany of sorts, whereby he tells Zelda about this girl, his "type" of girl, he saw from across the room and the camera returns to Zelda's face where you genuinely feel sorry for a moment, since her smile drops a little, Cristin is great at conveying this emotion without it seeming forced. The dialogue and facial expressions between the two is simple yet very realistic. Ben does a great job of showing that a guy can be multidimensional, that he can be romantic and not the stereotypical macho, tough guy routine.

Andrew says he pictures his whole entire life together with this girl, which isn't really something you discuss on a date, let alone you first date, but goes further by saying "and I'll be damned if that girl wasn't you". Zelda seems genuinely confused and at the same time taken back, were told in the beginning she's not into this love at first sight thing, her mother was really into "destiny and divorce". You feel with Zelda, she's reserved about letting someone take her heart but it's not her fault, its more a product of her upbringing.

As a lawyer she believes "you can find evidence that proves anything". Andrew mentions children and this startles Zelda, on their first date, he's discussing kids, she's thinking (and is also a little taken back) what's wrong with this guy, so she starts to leave. "This is meant to be" Andrew says but Zelda denies saying she wasn't "there that night" and didn't even where a silver dress. However as any fan who watched the trailers, we know she is the girl in the silver dress and so were rooting for them to find a way back to each other, on a side note how beautiful is Cristin Milioti.

Zelda lives in "reality" and Andrew believes in "destiny", but this doesn't stop Andrew, he enlists his group of works acquaintances to track down some photos of Zelda in a non-stalker like manner. They start rolling through "some instragram photos and unsnapping some snapchats" but there loudmouths blow Andrew's hidden agenda and like any good lawyer Zelda overhears the truth. Andrew's friends weren't to memorable but I really enjoyed their speech of "the one" and the "minus one", I had never though about it that way. It always funny when your friend's don't seem to understand the meaning of the hand signal to stop talking. We also learn both Andrew and Zelda's friends Stephie and Stu (both S, must be a play on the title A to Z) have had romantic entanglements and that Stu lied on his 'dating profile' of sorts. As any heartbroken man does, he drives at night listening to "My Heart Will Go On" before seeking wisdom from Lea Thompson whom I didn't know was in Back to the Future, hello again, Lorraine Baines McFly!

In the end, Zelda apologies to Andrew over the phone "Did I mention I'm a terrible person?", over looking his office, but he hangs up, que the sad music, but like all good things I knew he was coming to get her.

The camera angles and direction during the final scene(before the awesome Back to the Future reference scene) was quite lovely, it rotated around the couple and reminded me of those scenes in movies where the guy and the girl finally kiss, the soundtrack complimented the scene well too. Overall, it was a wonderful, charming and uplifting premiere episode and the location it was filmed at is very nice, compared to the fake offices we always see on some sitcoms.

The Characters

Ben Feldman is no stranger to the world of Romantic Comedies or Comedies in general, he was in The Perfect Man, The Mindy Project (guest starring) and Drop Dead Diva.
Ben plays Andrew, "a guys guy", mainly one guy, Stu, his best friend whom doesn't seem to be aware of Andrew's hidden passion for Titanic and love of Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On since he plays it in his car a few times. He works at Wallflower, an online dating company opposite Zelda's law firm.

Cristin Milioti plays Zelda, which firstly is a name that separates itself from a lot of the generic character names on TV shows nowadays whilst still reminding me of The Legend of Zelda which I was pleased with. Cristin plays a lawyer who had an irresponsible 'hippie type' mother, so now she controls whatever she can (and not in the way Christian Grey does) hence she's a lawyer who deals with pro bono, white collar cases. Cristin's best friend is Stephie from Law School, a girl whose always changing for her boyfriend.

I'm very glad Zelda is portrayed as a normal type girl, she isn't obsessed with herself, she's confident and doesn't need the to take a selfie to earn likes just to feel recognized and this is refreshing. I find Andrew very endearing, he's a hopeless romantic sparked by the love his parents had for each other, he's a dying breed in the sense those types of romanticism is slowly dying. It's great of NBC to show a guy whose kind and thoughtful, not mysterious, everyone's over the dark and brooding vampire types. It's great to show girls, there's still nice guys, like us out there. (I don't know enough about the supporting characters yet, I'll address them in a later review, my hope for them is to learn more about their backstory).

Best Quotes

Lydia (Andrew's Boss): "They swipe, they click, they hook up"
Stu: "This man is taking me from my home, will you show me where the bus station is"
Lora: "The person you thought was the one, turned out to be the negative one"
Stephie: "He's a pervert, all that nonsense about a silver dress, I bet the real reason he had those people on the Internet was to look for nude selfies of you, we've all done it"
Stephie: "We are doing a cleanse, the lemon one, that Beyonce did"
Zelda: "Maybe I could use a little meant to be in my life, just a little"
Andrew and Zelda: "I knew it was you, don't start".

Verdict: 8.5/10 B+
A to Z is free of Scandals and Teens in Scotland (both good shows though) and judging by the trailers and promotion, far better than it’s comedic competition CBS’s The McCarthy's.

A to Z was created by the man who penned Cars 2, Ben Queen and from Executive Producers Will McCormack and the beautiful and funny Rashida Jones, whom also caught my eye. Who wouldn't watch anything that Leslie Knope's best friend helped produce. I'm sure Leslie Knope will be watching, will you be, because I definitely will!

A to Z premieres Thursday 2nd October at 9:30 p.m. on NBC.



Let me know in the comments, you're favorite quotes, scenes or supporting charters. Did you enjoy the pilot, will you be watching more? I'm new to reviewing on Spoiler TV, I hope you enjoyed my first review, I'll be reviewing the show all season.

About the Author - Nirat Anop

Nirat watches a lot of TV Shows, some of his favorites are Sleepy Hollow, The 100, Orphan Black, Once Upon a Time, Outlander, Teen Wolf, Gotham, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Arrow, Sherlock, Doctor Who, The Legend of Korra, and The Goldbergs. He was born in South Africa and now lives in New Zealand. He's a University Student. He will be reviewing Selfie, A to Z and Mission Control. He's also the backup reviewer for Daredevil, Agent Carter, Gotham, Fresh of the Boat and Galavant, so you may see a review by him for either of these shows. Feel free to add him on Twitter.

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