incoming is this Netflix movie the next super bad it's understandable even thematically fitting that the new Netflix Team comedy incoming looks up to super bad like a younger brother idolizing his cool older siblings super bad may not itself be about the cool kids but in terms of one wild 19 comedies it's just about the funniest and best made version we've seen so far this Century something for any comic filmmaker to admire so when incoming rips it off it's hard to sustain much ill will in fact quite the opposite the movie's aspirations earn it a line of credit that it may not actually deserve reversing the Vantage of super bats about to graduate seniors incoming centers on four insecure friends who have just begun their freshman year of high school otherwise the characters line up pretty easily bench Mason temps is the sweetly nerdy Michael Sarah nursing a longtime crush on Bailey Isabella fera his year older sisters bestie Dana Barda Siri is the Jonah Hill wannabe Wildman whose older brother is throwing a school kickoff rager where both he and Bene hope to get lucky and cement their High School coolness and Eddie Ramon Reed and Connor Rafael Alejandro share the mcloven style side Adventure as to nerdier guys who don't make it to the party and wind up driving around all night inste dead Connor even gets an immediate nickname albeit a less triumphant one not of his choosing these aren't the only story threads running through incoming which writer directors Dave and John Chan sometimes let wander into a can't hardly weight style Ensemble Bobby canaval is on hand as a cool but lonely science teacher who winds up partying with his students essentially doing a longer form version of the Saturday Night Live party song video from a few years back Eddie and Conor wind up chauffeuring around a drunken Katrina luren gray the school's most popular online influencer Benji's sister Alysa Ali Gallow starts to come to terms with her own insecurities lots of people learn or half learn to be themselves rather than trying to be cool are these running gags or full-fledged subplots it's hard to say some of them are kind of funny and hardly any of them outright bomb but nothing really kills Z the churnin Veterans of its Always Sunny in Philadelphia are clearly trying to work in the anything goes mode of outrageous arated Comedy full of profane onliners and The lovably Reckless Behavior of Youth only here much of the worst behavior is halfhazard staged conveniently elited or anonymized into montages of characters we don't actually know it's fine that incoming is missing the bullying or gross out gags that make so many classic teen comedy is far less rewatchable than super bad unfortunately it's also missing crucial comic timing which consistently throws the movie off even when its runtime barely passes 80 minutes before the credits roll the clunkiness starts with the dialogue which often sounds can rather than improvised though super bad was more tightly scripted than it appeared much of it sounded thrillingly like it was rattled off straight from its lead's brains fair enough that none of these actors are as seasoned as a young Sarah or Hill the bigger problem is that unsupported by the chernin's direction comic reversals like a conflict that ping pongs between an impending fight and chumminess are mistimed stepping on punch lines payoffs vary from predictable to non-existent to weirdly punishing the movie's attempts at larger scales slapstick aren't calibrated for Sight gag hilarity and characters suffer injuries that feel weirdly real even as they exist in a cartoonish realm the movie often feels as if it's second guessing itself unsure if it wants to exact pitiless humiliations upon its characters or reward them for being essentially nice people that ey in all the commotion the movie short changes its most appealing element Ben's Dawning suspicion that Bailey might actually like him back further complicated though not really enough by his sister's mean girl hostility TS and Ferrera aren't especially hilarious in their roles but they do convey the nervous excitement of young love and their final moment together has unexpected romcoms sing that final flicker of a sweet tart ending also functions as a Moment of clarity revealing just how uninterested incoming has been in taking its own advice about chilling out and being yourself whatever this movie's authentic identity could have been it doesn't seem like an outrageous party flick is the right fit