Grand Crew is a 2021 Slice of Life comedy series airing on NBC, created by Phil Augusta Jackson. The series stars a group of five friends living in Los Angeles, that regularly hangout out at bars together, drink and unwind while sharing anecdotes about their lives, professional and personal. Noah Koles (Echo Kellum) is a hopeless romantic, while his sister Nicky (Nicole Byer) loves the single life and dating many men. Wyatt Fields (Justin Cunningham) is happily married, Anthony Holmes (Aaron Jennings) is a hard-working accountant and vegan, and his roommate Sherm (Carl Tart) is philosophical, but doesn't have a clear direction in life. Rounding out the cast is Fay (Grasie Mercedes) who is Nicky's friend, newly divorced.
The series ran for two seasons before being canceled in 2023
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Tropes in the series include:
- Big Beautiful Woman: Nicky, who has no problems landing date after date of attractive men.
- Big Fun: Nicky again, as well as Sherm. They both love drinking and hanging out with their friends.
- Black Republican: Nicky dates one in the pilot, at first she's disturbed when she finds out but then realizes that she needs to put politics aside. That is, until she hears his opinions on reproductive rights.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Nicky is a somewhat reckless partier who likes to live large and didn't even do her taxes before Anthony set her straight. Despite all this, she's shown to be a competent and successful realtor.
- Citizenship Marriage: Noah agrees to marry Simone, but by the time he gets to county office, Simone decides to marry her other friend Courtney (who is male) so she can stay in the country. Things get complicated when both men fight over Simone and then Courtney declares his love for her. Noah and Simone realize the situation has gotten messy, so then they decide to break up and Simone goes back to Canada.
- Cliffhanger: The first season finale ends with Simone asking Noah to marry her so she can stay in the country. Noah is about to answer when the episode ends abruptly.
- Dropped After the Pilot: The pilot had a professor, played by Garrett Morris, who introduced the episode with a discussion of how African-American males are perceived, with the main cast as examples. This Framing Device, along with Morris' character, are dropped from the remainder of the series.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Between the four men:
- Sanguine: Sherm is sort of a slacker, but he's also friendly and extroverted.
- Choleric: Anthony is goal-oriented and serious about his career, almost to a fault.
- Melancholic: Wyatt acts as the "dad friend" of the group, and is fussy and a bit uptight.
- Phlegmatic: Noah is sensitive and sweet, and a hopeless romantic.
- Genre Savvy: As a die-hard fan of rom-coms, Noah is always on the lookout for a Meet Cute or "sign from the universe."
- Genius Ditz: Sherm is the only one out of the crew that didn’t go to college, is unfocused in his life and goes from job to job, but is a chess whiz as well as being very philosophical.
- Happily Married: Wyatt is in wedding bliss with his wife and happy to be out of the dating game.
- Hidden Depths:
- Sherm, as part of his Genius Ditz character, comes across as The Big Guy but also has a very sensitive palate, can speak Spanish, is a fan of Japanese TV shows including anime, and is a chess master.
- A running joke with Fay, especially in the episode "Wine & Fire," is her wide range of knowledge and past experiences: she's a former Broadway dancer, an excellent baker, she once lived in a monastery, and she knows German.
- House Husband: Wyatt's wife Kristen is the breadwinner of the family, while Wyatt tends to the home.
- Local Hangout: In the pilot episode, the group have to leave their favorite bar because Noah broke up with one of the waitresses there. After trying out different places, they settle on a wine bar named Cru, which becomes their main hangout from that moment on.
- Locked in a Room: Fay locks Noah and his father in a stockroom so they can talk out their differences. She cites the use of this trope on various '80s movies as proof of its effectiveness as a bonding tactic. In The Tag, she does it again with Nicky and Dad.
- Minor Flaw, Major Breakup: Played With in the pilot. Nicky's Guy of the Week seems like a Nice Guy and a Sex God, but when she finds out he's a Republican she thinks about breaking up with him, but talking to her friends convince her this is a minor thing not worth breaking up over. Then their next date, she listens to his opinions about reproductive rights and promptly breaks things up, with her friends agreeing in the end it wasn't a minor thing after all.
- Missing Mom: Noah and Nicky's mother passed away while they were young. Both Noah and Nicky wonder that events stems from their issues of commitment and devotion.
- Old-Fashioned Fruit Stomping: When the group go to a vineyard, Noah and Anthony partake in a stomping demonstration. When Noah accidentally drops the number of a woman he just met into the grapes, he is told not to touch them with his hands because that would ruin the integrity of the juice (with Anthony noting the fact that their bare feet are currently in the grapes), so he has to fish it out with his feet.
- Pie in the Face: Noah and his father get in a pie fight while locked in the stockroom of their coffee shop. Dad lands most of his hits, while Noah only manages one.
- Poor Communication Kills: A recurring theme is how hard it is for the men to express their feelings to each other and sometimes to themselves, which is a common attitude amongst African-American men that the show aims to address. "Wine and Pie" sees Noah and his father finally understanding where each one is coming from after years of non-verbal communication.
- Punny Title: On grand cru, a designation of wine. Appropriate since much of the show takes place in a wine bar.
- Put on a Bus: Near the end of the second season, Fey moves to New York for a new job.
- Really Gets Around: Nicky beds several men throughout the series, and has no plans on settling down anything soon.
- Rummage Fail: In The Teaser of "Wine and Pie", Nicky is searching in her purse and pulls out various items, including some tennis balls (she doesn't play), a dildo (pixelated, of course) and ultimately, a second purse.
- Serial Romeo: Noah, who wants his life to be a Rom-Com and gets attached to any girl he dates.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Noah and Nicky with regard to their love lives; Noah dates looking for romantic connections and searches for "the one", whereas Nicky is mainly about the physical aspects of relationships and dates many guys.
- Sommelier Speak: In "Wine and Tastings", Sherm and Noah take part in a wine tasting competition, with Sherm being able to accurately guess the wine's place of origin just from how it tastes. They make it to the finals, but then Sherm burns his mouth on a crab cake and has to rely on Noah's clumsy description to guess the wine's origin and vintage. They lose, but only because Sherm got the vintage wrong by one year.
- Voiceover Letter: In the final two episodes of the second season, Noah takes up journal writing, which he reads out loud in voiceover as narration. This includes drawing out words whenever the keys on his laptop get stuck.
