Tonight’s episode of Ordinary Joe on NBC at 10p is moving the show forward by revealing a lot of things about Joe, Jenny, and Amy in all three timelines.
Rock Star Joe (James Wolk) is getting closer to finding the son that his ex-Jenny (Elizabeth Lail) put up for adoption nine years ago. What happens when he tells Jenny that?
Cop Joe is getting closer to Amy (Natalie Martinez). However, the fact that he killed a man on the job is starting to affect everything in his life, including his relationship with Amy. Can their second chance of love be over before it gets started?
Nurse Joe and Jenny’s marriage is hanging by a thread. They are going to therapy to see if they can try to save it, but there are so many obstacles in their path. There is one that might change everything.
Tonight’s episode is a game-changer as the writers and actors are finally finding their footing as they tell three different stories for the same people.
However, what I really think they need to do to help the viewers, is do standalone episodes. They need to dedicate episodes to just one of Joe’s timelines. It worked for This Is Us, and I think it will work for Ordinary Joe.
This way, we can invest in each timeline and each version of the characters. It is hard to do that when you have three actors playing three different versions of one person in three different timelines. I could be wrong, but I think it will help everyone to truly be able to delve into each Joe, Jenny, and Amy. What do you think?
Last week, we all fell in love with Ordinary Joe on NBC. A show about a man who has three choices on his college graduation day.
Joe (James Wolk) can choose to go with Jenny (Elizabeth Lail), his BFF, get married, have a kid, and become a nurse. Or he can ask Amy (Natalie Martinez) on a date, get married, struggle to have children, and become a Rock Star. Or he can pick his family, not get married, and follow his father’s footsteps to become a cop. Three drastically different choices, and we get to see all of those play out.
Last week he went to his college reunion, and we got to see how his choice affected the other women in the different timelines when he reconnects with them. On this week’s episode at 10p, we get to see him deal with the fallout of his interactions with the women he didn’t ask out that day, ten years earlier.
That is one part of the episode. The other part is learning more about how his father’s death changed who Joe is as the man he became in his 30s. So, get the tissues ready because you are going to need them.
There are a lot of things we are going to see in each episode, and singing is one of them. Recently at the NBC TCA Summer Press Day, Wolk revealed if he is a trained singer.
“I studied straight theater, plays, and drama. I didn’t study musical theater, but I have always
loved singing,” he said. “You know, whether it’s in the shower, or whether it’s for my kids, or for my wife, like, I just always am singing. But this is the first time I’ve done it professionally, and it’s been a great joy to get to do that with this show.”
And it is a great joy to listen to him sing. So much so, it is hard to believe he hasn’t done this professionally before now. So tune into Wolk singing every Monday at 10p on NBC, and act in a drama that is hard not to adore.
Sometimes in life, we have multiple choices, and we can only choose one of them. Do you ever wonder what would happen if you made a different choice? That is the premise of Ordinary Joe that debuts on NBC tonight at 10p after The Voice.
Joe (James Wolk) is 22 minutes late to his college graduation, and because of that, it could change his life forever. That is when he meets Amy (Natalie Martinez), and they have an immediate connection. He decides to ask her out, and she says yes. By him choosing her, he follows his path to being a Rock Star. The two of them get married and desperately want to start a family, but it doesn’t seem to be working out that way for them. That is one life choice he made that day.
But what if he chose to go with Jenny (Elizabeth Lail), his best friend and friend with benefits? The two of them get married and have a son (John Gluck). Since being a Rock Star will be put on the back burner, he decides to become a nurse. That takes a toll on his marriage. Can he repair it? That is another choice he made that fateful day.
The third choice is he chooses to spend time with his mother (Anne Ramsay) and his uncle (David Warshofsky), who is a cop, instead of both women. That leads to him becoming a police officer like his uncle and his dad. In this timeline, he is single. But that all might change when he goes to his college reunion and reunites Jenny and Amy.
What happens at the college reunion affects all three timelines differently and moves his life forward.
How that reunion changes the course of his life is what we get to watch every week. Because we have all wondered what if we chose differently that one time. Ordinary Joe shows what happens when someone does.
It is an interesting and original concept, and they do a good job by separating each timeline and not making it confusing for the viewer to know which path we are focusing on in that scene.
Plus, Wolk is such an endearing, well-versed actor. He plays each Joe differently and the same. You can’t help but root for him in each timeline. Especially because he has a supporting cast that supports him. It is as though they have known each other for the 10 years that the characters have known each other.
Ordinary Joe is a feel-good show, and it is something we all need as we try to survive this pandemic. There is hope in whatever choice we make, even if it feels like there isn’t. And don’t we all need a little hope these days? Hope like Ordinary Joe has in all of the decisions he made on his graduation day.
Now, I wonder what would have happened if I didn’t go to my internship right after my college graduation. What if I decided to hang out with my parents or my friends instead on that day? Where would I be today? What is your Oridinary Joe moment?
Have you ever wondered what would have happened if you had done something differently that one time? Would it have changed who you are now? That is what NBC’s Ordinary Joe will ponder starting on September 20th at 10p.
Seeing how his life could’ve gone in three different directions makes me want to see what direction the show will go in.
Plus, James Wolk is such a likable actor, we will want to tune in to find out what happens next to him.
Tell Me a Story. James Wolk met Elizabeth Jae Lynch and they fell in love. Four years ago they made that love official and got married. In January 2017, they welcomed a baby who they call Charlie. They didn’t want their son to be alone, so they tenderly gave him the sweet gift of a baby sister recently.
Now James, Elizabeth, Charlie and Lucy Kate will live happily ever after. Or at least until their children become preteens. Then all bets are off.
