There is a certain Mad Men-esque quality to TNT’s new ad agency drama series Trust Me, premiering tonight at 10pm. Like that AMC critics’ darling, Trust Me features characters who could uncharitably be called assholes—except no one in the writer’s room is interested in digging any deeper. On Mad Men, Don Draper, a philanderer who is almost pathological in his lying, should be a loathsome character. But series creator Matthew Weiner and star Jon Hamm have managed to subvert the audience’s judgment to create one of the most indelible characters currently on TV. No such luck over at TNT, though.

The driving force behind Trust Me is the partnership between odd couple ad men Mason (Eric McCormack, looking slightly seedy) and Conner (Tom Cavanagh, still as pop-eyed and self-consciously charming as always). Mason is uptight and dedicated to his job, but that wacky Conner likes to sleep in late with his latest conquest, and then roll into the office in a T-shirt and goof around. Of course, Conner turns out to be the more naturally gifted of the two, always pulling out a brilliant line at the last possible second. So you can imagine how it must rankle him when Mason is promoted to be his—gulp!—boss.

The only thing that differentiates the performances of McCormack and Cavanagh from their previous television work on Will and Grace and Ed, respectively, is that McCormack is now playing Will as a straight man and Cavanagh has embraced the sleaziness that his exaggerated features have long hinted at. Together, they riff on their co-workers, rummage through the grab bags they call minds for ad ideas, and generally behave like teenagers with expense accounts, while the plots of the first two episodes revolve around office placement, the divided loyalties of characters we barely know, and the accidental theft of a tagline. But if Trust Me featured at least memorable supporting characters, it might be worth watching. 

Instead, we get the usual array of stock supporting characters—the hardass but basically nice boss (a slumming Griffin Dunne), the geeky twentysomethings who feel slighted for being younger than Mason and Conner, and, most egregiously, the new female writer Sarah Krajicek-Hunter (Monica Potter). Written and performed as the shrillest character in the room at any given time, the show’s sole female lead is a loud, screeching ball of insecurities. Her repeated shrieks over her cubicle in the pilot will ring in your ears long after the episode is over. Too bad that’s the only thing about Trust Me that will stay with you.

Photo courtesy of TNT.