''Ordinary Joe'' is an American drama television series that ran from September 20, 2021 to January 24, 2022 on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

. The series, produced by

20th Television 20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century-Fox Television, and TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Comp ...

and

Universal Television Universal Television LLC (abbreviated as UTV) is an American television production company that is a subsidiary of Universal Studio Group, a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It serves as the network television production arm of NBC; a prede ...

, is co-developed and co-executive produced by

Garrett Lerner Garrett Lerner is an American television writer and producer who served as an executive producer on the Fox series ''House''. He often works with his writing partner Russel Friend. Television career Lerner's writing career began on the CB ...

and

Russel Friend Russel Friend is an American television writer and producer who served as an executive producer on the Fox series ''House'', for which he won a Writers Guild of America Award in 2010 for co-writing the episode "Broken". He often works with hi ...

James Wolk James Wolk (born March 22, 1985) is an American actor. He is known for his starring roles in the CBS comedy series ''The Crazy Ones'' (2013–2014), the AMC period drama series ''Mad Men'' (2013–2014), the CBS drama thriller series '' Zoo'' (201 ...

plays the titular role. In March 2022, the series was canceled after one season.

Premise

The series centers on Joe Kimbreau as he makes a pivotal, life-changing decision at his graduation from Syracuse University. The show follows him on three parallel timelines, starting ten years after his graduation: as a police officer, following in his father's footsteps; as a music star, following his passion; and as a nurse, after he marries his college sweetheart.

Cast and characters

Main

as Joe Kimbreau, a man whose one fateful choice on the day of his college graduation has profound effects on who he becomes ten years later: ** Musician Joe: a famous musician who is married to Amy. ** Nurse Joe: a mild-mannered nurse who is married to Jenny, with whom Joe shares a son, Christopher. ** Officer Joe: A heroic police officer who is reunited with Amy after ten years. *

Natalie Martinez Natalie Martinez is an American actress and model. She appeared in the 2008 film '' Death Race'', several music videos between 2003 and 2011, and two short-lived telenovelas in 2006 and 2007. Martinez starred in the single season of the crime dra ...

as Amy Kindelán, whom Joe meets on the day of his graduation: she is married to Joe, and about to launch a political career, in the "Musician Joe" timeline; she is married to Eric in the "Nurse Joe" timeline; and she is working for Congressman Diaz when Joe reenters her life after ten years in the "Officer Joe" timeline. *

Elizabeth Lail Elizabeth Dean Lail (born March 25, 1992) is an American actress. She played the recurring role of Anna in the fantasy adventure series '' Once Upon a Time'' (2014), and starred as Amy Hughes in the supernatural series '' Dead of Summer'' (2016) ...

as Jenny Banks, Joe's college sweetheart: in the "Musician Joe" timeline, she is a high-powered attorney who reveals to Joe that she put their son up for adoption ten years before; in the "Nurse Joe" timeline, she is a paralegal who is married to Joe, but initially estranged from him, and together they are raising their son Christopher; and in the "Officer Joe" timeline, she is an assistant district attorney who is keeping the existence of her son with Joe secret from him. * Charlie Barnett as Eric Payne, Joe's best friend: he is single and managing Joe in the "Musician Joe" timeline; he is a chef and is married to Amy in the "Nurse Joe" timeline; and he runs a pizza place and is married to Mallory in the "Officer Joe" timeline.

Recurring

David Warshofsky David Warshofsky (born David A. Warner; February 23, 1961) is an American film, television and stage actor. Life and career Warshofsky was born David A. WarnerAccording to the State of California. ''California Birth Index, 1905-1995''. Center fo ...

as Frank Kimbreau, Joe's uncle, who in the "Officer Joe" timeline is an NYPD detective. In the "Musician Joe" timeline, he has become Joe's head of security. In the "Nurse Joe" timeline, he has become a homeless drunk, estranged from most of his family. *

Anne Ramsay Anne Elizabeth Ramsay is an American actress best known for her role as Lisa Stemple on ''Mad About You'', for which she shared a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Best Ensemble in a Comedy series. Early life Ramsay was raised in La H ...

as Gwen Kimbreau, Joe's mother * Adam Rodriguez as Bobby Diaz, a United States congressman who aspires to higher office * John Gluck as Joe and Jenny's son with muscular dystrophy, who was given a different name in each timeline: ** Christopher ("Nurse Joe" timeline), cared for by a married Joe and Jenny. ** Lucas ("Officer Joe" timeline), raised by Jenny and her husband. ** Zeke ("Musician Joe" timeline), given up for adoption by Jenny years previously. * Joe Carroll as Ray, Jenny's husband in the "Officer Joe" timeline * Gabrielle Byndloss as Mallory, Eric's wife in the "Officer Joe" timeline * Jason Burkey as Darren, Jenny's husband in the "Musician Joe" timeline * Jack Coleman as Dr. Douglas Banks, Jenny's father * Christine Adams as Regina Diaz, Bobby's wife

Notable guest cast

* David Paluck as Christopher Kimbreau Sr., Joe's police officer father who died on 9/11 (in "Requiem", "The Letter") * Wynn Everett as Celeste Kimbreau, Joe's older sister (in "The Letter", "Thankful") * Maurice P. Kerry as Officer Gary Winnick, saved by Joe's father on 9/11 (in "The Letter")

Episodes

Production

Development

The series was originally written as a pilot by executive producer

Matt Reeves Matt Reeves (born April 27, 1966) is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He first gained recognition for the WB drama series '' Felicity'' (1998–2002), which he co-created with J. J. Abrams. Reeves came to widespread attenti ...

for

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

in 2006, based on a concept that Caleb Ranson had been developing for a separate British series for ITV, but neither program ended up moving forward. The project was revived a decade later and received a

put pilot A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...

commitment by

on November 5, 2018. In January 2020, the series received a pilot order for the 2020–21 season and Adam Davidson was brought on as director the following month. The outbreak of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

in March 2020 resulted in the series being pushed to the 2021–22 season. On March 31, 2021, NBC picked up the pilot to series. On March 4, 2022, NBC canceled the series after one season.

Casting

was the first member to be cast in the series on February 19, 2020, in the titular role of Joe Kimbreau. He was joined the following month by

and Charlie Barnett portraying the characters Amy and Eric Payne respectively. In March 2021, it was announced that

would also be co-starring in the series. In June 2021,

was revealed to be a part of the series cast. In July 2021, Adam Rodriguez joined the cast in a recurring role. In August 2021, Jack Coleman, Christine Adams, Joe Carroll, Rushi Kota, Jason Burkey, and Gabrielle Byndloss joined the cast in recurring capacities.

Production design

The show uses color palettes to distinguish among the three timelines: green hues when Joe is a nurse, blue hues when he is a cop, and red hues when he is a rock star.

Filming

Principal photography on the pilot began in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, in March 2020, but was suspended within a few days due to COVID-related shutdowns. Consequently, the pilot remained only partially filmed. Production on the pilot resumed in November 2020 and was completed the following month. Filming on the remainder of the first season commenced on July 27, 2021 in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

, and concluded on December 10, 2021.

Release

Broadcast

In May 2021, it was announced that the series would premiere in Fall 2021 and would air on Monday nights at 10 pm. On July 23, 2021, NBC released the first official trailer for the series. The series premiered on September 20, 2021 and concluded on January 24, 2022.

International

In Canada, the series aired on Citytv, with episodes being aired in simulcast with NBC. In Malaysia, the series aired on PRIMEtime.

Reception

Critical response

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reports a 50% approval rating with an average rating of 6.3/10, based on 20 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "''Ordinary Joe'' has an appealing start and premise, but it's hard to see whether it's triple timelines will add up to a satisfactory season of television."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 64 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The show's use of multiple color palettes was described by a critic as "notable but not distracting" to distinguish among the three timelines: green when Joe is a nurse, blue when he is a cop, and orange when he is a rock star.

Ratings

*Note: Live+3 day ratings have been used where Live+7 day ratings are unavailable.

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title 2020s American drama television series 2021 American television series debuts 2022 American television series endings Nonlinear narrative television series English-language television shows Fictional portrayals of the New York City Police Department NBC original programming Television productions suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Television series by Universal Television Television series by 3 Arts Entertainment Television shows set in New York City