Partners is would have been an edgy, clever show about a decade ago. The format and styling of the show are truly of the 90s, and the portrayal of gay stereotypes is from around then too. The schticky humor, the laugh track, is not something that appeals to my particular tastes, but I wanted to give it a go anyway for the very appealing cast and my confidence in showrunners Max Mutchnick and David Kohan (Will & Grace is one of a limited number of shows I will always watch a rerun of if I flip past it). It was really too bad, then, that this was one of the most unfunny pilots that I’ve seen this year.