The Good Place and Grandfathered writers land sitcom about the rom-com potential of deportation

Some things in life are just inherently funny. Walking into a glass door. A loud fart during Sunday Mass. Pets failing to stick the landing after a jump. And now, we can add to that list: A person living a happy and carefree life who is suddenly arrested and deported, thereby leading to an impromptu wedding in a desperate attempt to wring some saving grace out of tragedy.

At least, that’s the premise behind a new sitcom. Deadline reports that ABC has put into development Borderline, described as a “single-camera immigrant-couples comedy,” but it sounds an awful lot like the plot of ’90s rom-com Green Card, if Gerard Depardieu had gotten deported prior to his marriage of convenience to Andie MacDowell. And they had actually been into each other from the start. And if Depardieu’s character was a younger Latinx woman instead of a forty-something French dude. Okay, so it’s pretty different.

The longer description sets up the premise a bit more clearly: “After goody two-shoes Steve falls for reckless Maria, their whirlwind romance is cut short when she gets deported. Now they must decide whether to bail on the potential love of their lives or take a leap of faith and get married.” It sure sounds like something is about to ensue, and we all know that something is called “hijinks.” Giving us hope this whole thing will actually be good are the two writers behind the project. Chris Encell spent two seasons writing on The Good Place, and just wrapped his second year as a co-producer on Netflix’s delightful On My Block; Danny Chun created the gone-before-its-time Grandfathered and was an executive producer on Speechless. That’s about as solid a pedigree as one could hope for; now, if they can just get someone who urinates on a plane carpet as effectively as Depardieu, they’ll be all set in the humor department.