''The Goodwin Games'' is an American

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

series that aired as a midseason replacement on

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

from May 20 to July 1, 2013. It was created and written by

Carter Bays Carter Loard Bays (born August 12, 1975) is an American author, composer and television showrunner. Bays co-created the CBS sitcom '' How I Met Your Mother'' where he served as showrunner, writer and executive producer for all nine seasons. Th ...

and Craig Thomas (creators of ''

How I Met Your Mother ''How I Met Your Mother'' (often abbreviated as ''HIMYM'') is an American sitcom, created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays for CBS. The series, which aired from September 19, 2005 to March 31, 2014, follows the main character, Ted Mosby, and his ...

'') alongside Chris Harris.

Premise

The series revolves around a trio of estranged siblings: Henry, an overachieving surgeon with an overabundant ego; Chloe, a former child mathematical prodigy who became popular in high school and abandoned academia (and her friends) for a career as a struggling actress; and Jimmy, a career petty criminal with a string of convictions who has to sneak into his pre-teen daughter's bedroom at night to visit her. The siblings return home for their father's funeral. His attorney (one of Chloe's abandoned childhood friends) April Cho informs them that their father's will awards them $23 million, but only if they agree to compete in a series of games of their father's devising. The games are designed to force them to confront their personal failings, recall their childhoods, and bring them together as a family once again. When the siblings resist, April informs them that their father anticipated their reaction, and therefore a fourth individual will be involved in the games, a complete stranger named Elijah, who collects part of the remaining inheritance every time the siblings fail to follow their father's instructions.

Cast

Main cast

Becki Newton Rebecca Sara Newton is an American actress, known for her roles as Amanda Tanen on ''Ugly Betty'' and Quinn Garvey on ''How I Met Your Mother''. Early life Newton was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the daughter of Thomas Newton and Jennifer Ne ...

as Chloe Goodwin *

Scott Foley Scott Kellerman Foley (born July 15, 1972) is an American actor and director. Foley is known for roles in television shows such as ''The Unit'', '' Scrubs'', '' Felicity'', and ''Scandal'', and in films such as '' Scream 3''. He has als ...

as Henry Goodwin *

T. J. Miller Todd Joseph Miller (born June 4, 1981) is an American actor and comedian. In 2008, he made his acting debut in ''Cloverfield'', and from 2010 to 2014, he voiced Tuffnut Thorston in the first two ''How to Train Your Dragon'' films. From 2014 to ...

as Jimmy Goodwin (

Jake Lacy Jake Lacy (born February 14, 1985) is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of Pete Miller on the ninth and final season of ''The Office (U.S. TV series), The Office'', as Fran Parker in the fourth and fifth seasons of HBO's ''Girls (T ...

in the original pilot) *

Kat Foster Kat Foster is an American actress known for her role as Steph Woodcock on Til Death''. Early life and education Foster was born in Oakland, California and graduated from The College Preparatory School. A classically-trained dramatic actress, ...

as Lucinda Hobbes **(

Felisha Terrell Felisha Terrell (born March 16, 1979) is an American film and television actress. Background Terrell grew up in Chicago, Illinois. She was born to a European American mother and African American father. Terrell obtained her degree from the Univer ...

in the original pilot) *

Melissa Tang Melissa Tang (born May 7, 1985) is an American actress. Early life and education Tang was born in Los Angeles, California, and is of Chinese descent. She graduated with a BFA in acting from Carnegie Mellon University in 2007. Career She ha ...

as April Cho

Recurring

Sabrina Carpenter Sabrina Annlynn Carpenter (born May 11, 1999) is an American singer and actress. Carpenter made her acting debut with an appearance in the television crime show ''Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' and had a recurring role on Fox Broadcasting ...

as Young Chloe Goodwin *

Beau Bridges Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III (born December 9, 1941) is an American actor and director. He is a three-time Emmy, two-time Golden Globe and one-time Grammy Award winner, as well as a two-time Screen Actors Guild Award nominee. Bridges was a ...

as Benjamin Goodwin *

Kaitlyn Maher Kaitlyn Ashley Maher (born January 10, 2004) is an American teen singer and actress known for being the Youngest Top 10 Finalist on America's Got Talent and for her roles in films such as ''The Search for Santa Paws'', '' Santa Paws 2'', ''Free B ...

as Piper Goodwin * Jerrod Carmichael as Elijah * Stefanie Black as Annie *

Laurie Metcalf Laura Elizabeth Metcalf (born June 16, 1955) is an American actress. Often described as a character actor, she's known for her complex and versitile roles across the stage and screen. She has received various accolades throughout her career sp ...

as Dr. Richland *

Adam Rodriguez Adam Michael Rodriguez (born April 2, 1975)"Adam Rodriguez" (2006). ''Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television''. Vol. 71. Detroit: Gale. Accessed via ''Biography in Context'' database, August 7, 2016. is an American actor, screenwriter and ...

as Ivan *

Janina Gavankar Janina Zione Gavankar (; born November 29, 1980) is an American actress and musician. She is trained as a pianist, vocalist, orchestral percussionist and majored in theatre at the University of Illinois Chicago. Her roles include Shiva on ''The ...

as Hannah *

Chris Diamantopoulos Chris Diamantopoulos (born May 9, 1975) is a Canadian actor. He played Russ Hanneman in the HBO series '' Silicon Valley'' and starred in the film '' The Three Stooges'', and the TV series ''Good Girls Revolt''. He currently voices Mickey Mouse ...

as Chad * William Edward Dagsher as Fisherman

Production

On May 9, 2012, Fox placed a series order for the comedy that was expected to premiere during the 2012–13 television season as a mid-season entry. On June 7, 2012, it was announced that

was replacing

in the role of Jimmy. On November 2, 2012, it was announced that Fox cut the episode order from thirteen to seven.

Episodes

Broadcast

The series premiered in Australia on

Eleven Eleven or 11 may refer to: *11 (number), the natural number following 10 and preceding 12 * one of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011, or any year ending in 11 Literature * ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn *'' ...

on May 20, 2014.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the series has an aggregate score of 38% based on 6 positive and 10 negative critic reviews. The website consensus reads: "''The Goodwin Games'' is simply unimpressive in the most uninteresting ways." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the series has a score of 57 out of 100 based on 17 critic reviews, indicating "Mixed to Average"

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Goodwin Games, The 2010s American single-camera sitcoms 2013 American television series debuts 2013 American television series endings English-language television shows Television shows set in New Hampshire Fox Broadcasting Company original programming Fictional games Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Television shows directed by Peyton Reed