'The Winner' is weird

'The Winner' is weird.

Sometimes it's good weird. Sometimes it's bad weird. Sometimes it's tasteless and vulgar. Sometimes it's surprisingly sweet and touching.

But this new Fox comedy, which premieres Sunday at 7:30 p.m. is always weird.

Rob Corddry ("The Daily Show") stars as Glenn Abbott in what is sort of "The Wonder Years" set in 1994. (What with jokes about the O.J. Simpson slow-speed chase and the suicide of Herve Villechaize, the 1990s seem like a long time ago.)

Only Glenn is no adolescent — he's 32. But he still lives at home with his mother (Linda Hart) and father (Lenny Clarke), he's never had a real job and he's only kissed one girl, when he was 14.

That girl, Allison (Erin Hayes), now a divorced doctor, moves back in next door to care for her ailing mother. And this — we're told in a present-day voiceover from Glenn — sets him on the path to becoming the richest man in Buffalo who's a happily married father of three in 2007.

Glenn awkwardly bonds with Allison's 14-year-old son, Josh (Keir Gilchrist), because, well, they're both so incredibly awkward. It starts out seeming really creepy — c'mon, a guy in his 30s becoming best friends with a kid barely in his teens — but it becomes oddly endearing.

"The Winner" is built on the framework of "The Wonder Years" — the folks at Fox like to refer to it as "The Blunder Years." It's a period piece about a (pseudo) adolescent learning life lessons, accompanied by narration from the grown-up version of the central character. But it's a through-the-warped-looking glass version that is not a show for the kids.

Glenn is indeed an overgrown adolescent. He's obsessed with sex, and he has no practical experience in that area.

Or, as Glenn puts it in a conversation with Josh in Episode 2, "I've never fornicated with a woman." This is a problem because Glenn has a date with Josh's mom. So, with Josh in tow, he heads to the local massage parlor to, um, practice.

He chickens out. But he does finally, um, get some in experience in Episode 6, when he meets Josh's teacher (Katey Sagal). Who, it turns out, used to be his teacher. The teacher he used to fantasize about. And, um, those fantasies become reality.

There are multiple uses of language that I can't print in a family newspaper in all five episodes screened for critics.