Denis Leary’s New Sitcom ‘Going Dutch’ Deserves to Be 2025’s First Comedy Hit
Intellectually, we all know the nature of TV production doesn’t permit networks and platforms to make sudden programming pivots in response to the prevailing political mood. But looking at the midseason TV schedule, it does feel as though things are starting to tilt right. ABC’s new sitcom Shifting Gears finds real-life conservative Tim Allen as Matt, a widower trying to reconnect with his daughter Riley (Kat Dennings) between rants about current events. CBS’ new medical drama Watson throws us back to the George W. Bush years with a House retread; so does ABC's rebooted Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Soap operas haven’t ruled daytime since the Reagan years, but CBS’ new drama Beyond the Gates will start trying to rekindle that era in February.
If a rightward turn in politics must be reflected in culture — and we should probably expect even more shows about “everyday Americans” living “heartland values” — Going Dutch is the best way to do it.
Premiering on Fox January 2nd, Going Dutch is about Army Colonel Patrick Quinn (Denis Leary). As we meet him, Quinn’s years of combat service, including in Iraq, are behind him, and now he’s excited to take over command of the United States Army Garrison Baumholder, a (real) duty station in Germany. But that promotion isn’t to be, as General Davidson (Joe Morton) tells him: a minor scandal of Quinn’s has come to light, so instead, Quinn is being posted to Stroopsdorf, a (not real) base in The Netherlands. Why there, in particular? Davidson: “To drive you insane.”
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Immediately, it works: Corporal Elias Papadakis (Hal Cumpston), casually riding around on a bike with what is certainly not a regulation haircut, warns Quinn not to try to get the lay of the land from a higher vantage point: “Possums don’t like it when you go in their tower………….. sir.”
“You look like they found Jesus dead in a river,” Quinn spits.
“That’s funny,” smirks Papadakis, pedaling off again as Quinn’s XO, Major Abraham Shah (Danny Pudi), physically restrains Quinn from pursuing him.
Quinn only gets more incensed as he learns that the three main functions of Stroopsdorf, chyroned “Least Important U.S. Army Base in the World,” are cheese production, laundry and bowling. Still, Shah doesn’t understand why this posting was the one Davidson chose to ruin Quinn’s life when he could have just sent Quinn to Alaska. That’s when they find out the ranking officer on the base is Captain Maggie Quinn (Taylor Misiak), Quinn’s estranged daughter.
Given the two Quinns’ opposite reactions to it, Stroopsdorf is almost another character, and a hilarious one. Maggie knows no one expects much from it, or from the troops who are stationed there, but that hasn’t stopped her from achieving the highest morale of any base in the Army. (Though Quinn is disgusted to hear he’s now in charge of the best dining facility in the U.S. military, he also can’t convincingly pretend that the dish he’s served isn’t one of the greatest he’s ever eaten — in or out of the military.) Quinn’s refusal to believe Maggie when she stresses the importance of Stroopsdorf’s good showing in the imminent Tulip Festival is typical for a man she diagnoses as a narcissist; his not having noticed that she cut off contact with him two years ago is pretty solid evidence that she’s right.
Stroopsdorf’s cheese, laundry and bowling missions permit very funny parade set pieces for the climax of the pilot. Presumably, given the Dutch setting, cheese was always going to be a foundational element for the show, but I’d love to know which other possibilities were floated in the writers’ room before laundry and bowling were chosen to be the other two extremely silly occupations for the characters to take very seriously. (For example: In the third episode, Sergeant Dana Conway, played by Laci Mosley, announces that they’ve been selected to do all the laundry for a NATO conference taking place in the region, screaming, “This! Is! Our! SUPER BOWL!!!”)
It’s probably not a big spoiler to say both Quinns decide it will benefit them to improve their relationship, but the emotional moments take a distant back seat to joke density. This is particularly true in the third episode, when CIA Special Agent Rick Silver (Parker Young) arrives on base. The pilot has already been sneakily subversive about its military setting. Conway reveals that they created a Teen Center on base, even though no children live there, just because they had the budget for it; Maggie gives an extensive intro about cardiovascular health and emotional wellbeing before announcing that she and the troops are having a silent disco. Quinn’s very assignment to Stroopsdorf is entirely driven by petty spite, which is definitely not a principle that got much play in those old “Be All That You Can Be” commercials. But the introduction of the CIA lets the show be even more direct in its satire of the U.S. military-industrial complex. Quinn and Shah take turns listing the multiple times the CIA screwed up its missions in Afghanistan and Iran; when Rick tells Maggie, his girlfriend, about an op he’s running, he’s so certain the Agency definitely will get caught that he already has a fall guy in mind.
It’s not all dark comedy about American destabilization of emerging democracies, however. The B-plot in this episode revolves around Conway trying to dress Private Anthony “BA” Chapman (Dempsey Bryk) for a formal event when the tuxedo pants she sourced for him don’t accommodate his gigantic penis. We love a high-low moment!
Fox already tried to make a sitcom in which challenging family dynamics play out against the backdrop of an unloved military base, and featuring Parker Young: Enlisted. Since its first and so far only season premiered in 2014, I’m starting to think we’re never going to get more of it. But as an accidental quasi-sequel, Going Dutch is already satisfying in many of the same ways. The central family relationship is compellingly prickly, with Leary in particular perfectly cast as the kind of old Gen Xer who’ll angrily defend his right to use the word “midget,” then sheepishly phone after he’s stormed out of the conversation to admit he looked it up and realized he’s wrong. As Maggie, Misiak isn’t required to lean too much on trying to make up for lost time with Quinn, and has an excellent motive for putting up with his crap. And the supporting weirdos — and Pudi as a supporting unsung hero of efficiency — are perfectly cast.
Give it a shot even if you’re not pro-military. It kind of seems like the people who make the show aren’t really either.
