"10 Items or Less" Review: Not the Funniest, But...

I have been a fan of John Lehr since he played Christina Applegate’s silent brother on “Jesse.” “Friends” fans will recognize him as Eric, the guy who was almost Chandler’s roommate instead of Joey.

But recently, he’s been known as one of the GEICO cavemen. In fact, he had to pass on a major role in ABC’s “Cavemen,” because of his commitment to TBS’s “10 Items or Less.”

I hope Lehr gave someone at TBS a really nice Christmas present…

Because with “Less,” Lehr is the undisputed star and he’s pretty good in that role. “Less,” which is an improvised comedy with a loose script, centers on the action in the Greens and Grains Grocery Store. Lehr plays the store’s manager, Leslie Pool. Pool inherited the Ohio grocery store from his father and now he has to figure out ways to keep it open under heavy competition from the SuperValueMart across the street.

Helping Leslie in his mission are Yolanda in produce (Roberta Valderrama), Carl the maintenance man (Bob Clendenin), Ingrid the courtesy-counter greeter (Kirsten Gronfield), Todd the butcher (Chris Payne Gilbert), Richard the cashier (Christopher Liam Moore), and Buck the bagger (Greg Davis Jr.).

But in all honesty, the supporting cast is just there to give Lehr someone to work off of. And any stories without him just aren’t as funny.

In the premiere, Leslie meets the new manager of the SuperValueMart, Mercy (Kim Coles), who has been brought in to bury Greens and Grains. And Leslie seemingly makes her job easy when he ignores the store in favor of playing a new game. But it’s Mercy who gets a surprise.

And in a future episode, Leslie decides to put lasik surgery in the store, which doesn’t exactly go over as planned—especially since Yolanda wanted to use the space for her tube top store.

“Less” isn’t the funniest show on TV, but it is one of the most unique. And that makes it worth a try—especially to see Lehr do his thing without all that crazy caveman stuff…

“10 Items or Less” premieres commercial-free Tuesday, January 6th at 11 p.m. on TBS…

Photo Credit: TBS