The friendship between Riley, a Marine combat veteran struggling to readjust to civilian life in Ohio, and Awalmir , the Afghan interpreter who served with his unit and has just arrived to start a new life in America.
"Al" certainly has good intentions. But good intentions aren't enough to make the show a worthy representation of a culture or even a good sitcom. There has to be something more substantial to back them up, and "Al" just doesn't have it.
Whether there's enough story to draw from culture clashes and Al's wide-eyed innocence remains to be seen, but the likability of the characters is never in question.
As well-intentioned as it may be, it's this exact method of presenting authentic, unexplored stories to mainstream audiences in the laziest manner that fails the marginalized community it's trying to depict.
All this show can generate for Al is to call him an 'optimistic little dude,' and that patronizing pat on the head is pretty much the whole vibe of the arduous United States of Al.
It's possible to come away thinking United States of Al has its heart in the right place, and still conclude, strictly in TV terms, that it simply isn't very good.
