['Up All Night' Season 1, Episode 1 - 'Pilot']

There's a sweetness that really surprised me throughout the premiere of 'Up All Night' (Wed., 10PM ET on NBC). To be honest, I wasn't sure if Will Arnett could pull off the role of a normal human being, but he absolutely nailed it. His chemistry with on-screen wife Christina Applegate was so authentic, I believed their love completely.

It was the little moments they shared, and some clever editing by the writers to make it feel real. After a fight over who was or wasn't awake at what time to take care of the baby, we cut quickly to the next morning where it's kisses and quick apologies. This is a couple we can root for together, because they're in this together.

Maya Rudolph's retooled Oprah-like character is a lot of fun, and she brings the over-the-top zaniness you'd usually look for out of Will Arnett's character. It's really just a chance for her to do her old Oprah impression from 'SNL' on a weekly basis, but it works. Plus, with Oprah off the air, we gotta get our fix somewhere, right?

This pilot did a quick job of setting up the very simple premise. After a quick scene where Regan (Applegate) and Chris (Arnett) discovered they were going to have a baby, we jumped ahead to the present, where we learned that Chris quit his job as a lawyer to be a stay-at-home dad, while Regan produces Ava's (Rudolph) show.
The relationship between Ava and Regan is perhaps the most surprising. It's tough to gauge the level of Ava's celebrity, because she can drop in and sing karaoke without getting harassed, but has a private helicopter. Of course, some of this could be due to the retooling of the pilot. Originally, Rudolph and Applegate worked together in a PR firm.

In some ways, it was like watching two different shows, because Ava is so outrageous as a personality in the office scenes, while Regan and Chris are so very normal. But the scene when Ava brought the gift basket showed us that this is a new dynamic for the couple, as did their anniversary night out.

Not so long ago, they were as wild and outrageous as Ava, which makes the show even more relatable. Having a child changes everything, and we'll get to watch this couple that's a little later in life exploring this new chapter. In the promos for the show, the scene with Arnett yelling at the baby, "We're trying to help you!" felt a bit forced, but in the context of the show, it was probably one of the funniest scenes yet, as he was suffering a mean hangover.

It looks like NBC has a charming winner on its hands with 'Up All Night.' Both Applegate and Arnett are just adorable as a couple, and I believe their love for one another and the baby. Ava may be over the top, but the closing scene with her when she accepted Regan choosing to stay with the baby rather than run off to book Stevie Nicks grounded her character a bit in just the right way.

What surprised me by the end was that this was a show that featured three characters, for the most part, and a baby (how cute was she, by the way?). And it worked. That's pretty impressive.