“Good morning ladies and gentlemen. This is your captain speaking. We’ll be crash-landing near a random island in about 10 minutes. The weather is wonderfully sunny with a chance of fistfights and an idiocracy, and expect a warm breeze if you’re pooping en plein air.” In TBS’s newest comedy from virtually unheard-of writers (and brothers) Justin and Jordan Shipley, a plane flying to Thailand crashes and it’s up to the survivors to figure out how to live on an island with no food, water, law or modern conveniences. The show is directed by James Griffiths (director of “Black-ish”) who has mostly directed dramedies. Together this team has created a bromantic version of “Lost,” and while it isn’t always believable, it is highly entertaining. Out of the remaining survivors, Danny (Brian Sacca from The Wolf of Wall Street and “Kroll Show”), Pack (Asif Ali from “Mr. Robinson”) and Owen (Zach Cregger of “About a Boy”) band together immediately and help the injured under the direction on Liam (James Scott from “Days of Our Lives”), a former British special agent. Life seems to even out quickly with Liam, the undeniable natural leader, taking care of the group, but Liam is lost after a hilariously unfortunate accident. Pack is a sophisticated, modern sports agent from Los Angeles who is forced to let go of technology upon crash-landing into the ocean, but asking him to give up on his cellphone is like asking a hipster to eat non-free-range eggs: He literally can’t. He has no real skills outside of city life and walks around the island looking for a phone signal. Eventually he finds a single area on the island (an area about as wide as your arm reach) but realizes that—like most people today—he only knows one phone number. After the phone dies, to fill the void of technology he turns to a drug we’re all familiar with but it isn’t what you—or he—assumes it to be.As the only surviving crew, Owen is the unwilling leader that has to take charge after the untimely death of Liam. The first glimpse we get of Owen is him smoking in the plane bathroom mid-flight with the battery pulled out of the fire alarm while ignoring attendant calls. Obviously he loves his job and working with people. Now Owen is forced to be with the people he tried to avoid as a leader and a friend, indefinitely. One of the biggest problems he faces is trying to find a quiet place to poop for the first week on the island—which he eventually does find thanks to Danny.Danny, who isn’t so secretly vying to be the leader of the island, is an underdog who desperately wants to be a hero. For as long as he can remember, he’s always wanted to be a cop. Naturally, he offers to serve the island in this capacity. So he tells the people on the island that he’s a police officer (and soon finds an air marshal badge and gun to prove it to any challengers). However, being a humble, sweet buffoon puts limits on what he can effectively do. When the island is taken over by the group douchebag Todd (Will Greenberg of “Workaholics”) stealing and hiding all the food on the island, Danny engages Todd in a drink-off to get the food back for his people. The group is now forced to try to survive in these apocalyptic conditions with their very modern skill sets while adjusting to new life and social conditions. “Wrecked” addresses very serious modern questions—How can you poop outdoors comfortably? Can you live without technology and still be fulfilled? The character relationships and hierarchy aren’t quite believable but this is one of many new shows that’s attempting (and achieving, to a point) an exemplary diverse cast.
“Wrecked” premieres Tuesday, June 14, at 8pm on TBS
