A new comedy series featuring Ashton Kutcher is arriving on Netflix soon. The streamer released the trailer for The Ranch today, introducing the former Two and a Half Men star as a semi-pro football player whose career hasn’t panned out as planned.
The plot follows Kutcher as Colt, the son of a rancher who returns home to help out with the family business. He reunites with his big brother, Jameson (played by Kutcher’s former That ’70s Show co-star Danny Masterson), father Beau (Sam Elliott), and mother Maggie (Debra Winger), but it’s a complicated homecoming — in part because Colt is struggling to let go of his football days, in part because he has been away so long.
Back in Colorado, Colt will have to adjust to the reality of living with his parents. Based on the preview, he’ll have some (literal) misfires as he recalibrates to ranch life, and will also learn the perils of bringing dates home. (Elisha Cutherbert will play Colt’s former flame in a recurring role.) The family dynamics, however, appear to be front and center, providing the main source of entertainment, and accompanied by a laugh track — a very odd choice for a new series, especially one far away from the big networks on Netflix.
The choice to use a multi-camera format is another odd one in TV’s so-called “golden age,” but it’s obvious with shows like Fuller House and a wide variety of children’s programming that Netflix is casting a very wide net with its original series these days. The Ranch appears to be going straight after the network primetime faithful.
In addition to reuniting on screen, Kutcher and Masterson are also executive producers. The two starred as Kelso and Hyde, respectively, on That ’70s Show from 1998 to 2006. Kutcher previously shared a photo of himself with his co-star on Twitter, together again and experiencing “#ranchLife.”
#ranchLife #theranchnetflix @dannymasterson https://t.co/FjuZGlirZQ pic.twitter.com/W1w7PXQmvO
— ashton kutcher (@aplusk) March 4, 2016
Theirs isn’t the only reunion, though; Don Reo and Jim Patterson, both of whom worked on Two and a Half Men, serve as executive producers on the series as well. The comedy was previously given a straight-to-series order. It marks Kutcher’s first Netflix show.
The Ranch arrives on Netflix on April 1.
