NBC's The Playboy Club premiere: Scandalously dull?

Forget accusations that NBC's new drama may be too steamy for TV. According to some critics, its real offense is being plain old "dismal"

NBC's 'The Playboy Club'
(Image credit: Facebook/The Playboy Club)

The Parents Television Council has conspicuously attacked NBC's new show, The Playboy Club, which premieres Monday night, for being too scandalous for prime-time TV. Critics who've seen the first episode don't seem to agree, however: For them, the biggest shock is that the show's intriguing premise — the beginnings and sexual politics of Chicago's first Playboy club in the 1960s — has yielded such dull television. Do the bunnies really fail that badly at tantalizing viewers?

No one will be "watching The Playboy Club for the dialogue": That's because the script is "not only obvious but rather shallow," says Dave Wiegand at The San Francisco Chronicle. Result: An "appealing enough" cast comes off as "mostly wooden." The problem begins with the show's plucky lead bunny Maureen (Amber Heard), who — portrayed as both "ambitious" and "acquiescent" — lacks the character cohesion to engage the audience in her half-baked murder subplot. "Even as no-brainer entertainment," The Playboy Club "should be a lot better than it is."

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