Blossom Clashes With Sabrina.

As a kid I grew up watching Melissa Joan Hart in Clarissa Explains It All, she didn’t but I got a few laughs out of the show. Then as I grew, she grew up with me, maturing to the slightly more grown up Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and sure that got dragged out through university when she did a Maxim photoshoot, all was looking good, but then we parted ways.  I started to work for living and she stopped. Now our paths cross again as Melissa makes a return to TV in her new multi camera sitcom Melissa and Joey (Yes that Joey is the floppy haired (now shaven headed) brother to Blossom.

The series sees Melissa all grown up and working as a successful councilwoman and guardian to her niece and nephew. She has trouble in her love life, trouble at work and trouble dealing with the kids, but the answer to all her problems comes in the form of a man (Joey) angry that her brother-in-law screwed him out of all his money.  Joey, for no clear reason takes it upon himself to become a her nanny. Of course he is the greatest nanny ever, he cooks, cleans and solves all the kids’ problems with endearing heart to hearts. So starts the the most conventional love story of all time, two people who hate each other decide to work together.

I am going to bless you with the first two lines of dialogue from this show, so you get a sense of it.

Rhonda: Look at you public servant by day hottie by night. (obscene amount of laughter)
Melissa: Well I have to turn down the heat during day or no one would get anything done. (obscene amount of laughter)

It’s not funny! Neither of those two statements came even close to being a joke. My distaste for this show is epic.  Melissa hasn’t grown up at all!  More often than not the comedy is more suited to Nick Jr than prime time. Yes I know this is the ABC Family channel, but adults are expected to watch this too.  I guess that they felt that box was ticked with this little gem “Today Lenox handed out flyers with an original poem that rhymed her principal’s name in a way that didn’t go over well with Mrs Lunt“. Yep that is a “cunt” joke in family comedy, this never would have happened in Alf , it is isn’t subtle, clever or funny (check out this Anamatics clip to see how it should be done.) and they repeat the damn joke.

Melissa just runs around the set looking frantic, while Joey comes in angry and then turns into the dog whisperer of kids! There is nothing of merit in this sh0w, it is predictable, event led, it has no heart, no jokes and makes no sense. It is shows like this that killed the multi-camera sit-com. Just to be clear, the cast are fine, the script stinks. Maybe the writers knew this and included a sub-plot in which trash bags of “crap” are thrown at the house and held up in almost every scene. Hanging a hat on something obvious is a classic lazy writer’s trick, but David Kendall and Bob Young might very well have executed it better than at any point in history.

Created / Written by: David Kendall, Bob Young
Directed by: Ted Wass
Starring: Melissa Joan Hart, Joey Lawrence, Taylor Spreitler, Nick Robinson
Date premièred: 17th August 2010
UK Details: TBA

Tags: ABC Family, Bob Young, Comedy, David Kendall, Melissa and Joey, Melissa Joan Hart, Sit-Com

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 11th, 2010 at 8:21 pm and is filed under Comedy, Sit-Com. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.