Posts Tagged ‘Sit-Com’

Review: Mike and Molly

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

A comedy that teaches us that fat people should stick to their own kind.

The studio based sitcom has been struggling to take hold for some time now as the single camera sitcom continues to take hold. The limitations of a single studio and the demographic  it pitches towards leaves the format looking cheap and feeling stale.  Executive producer Chuck Lorre currently has the two highest rated sitcoms to his name (Two And A Half Men and The Big Bang Theory), so his name on a new project is going to get attention. Mike and Molly sets out to make their mark with the often recycled plot line of the misadventures of a new couple and their circle of zanny friends. The twist? They’re fat.

In the pilot we are introduced to Mike (Billy Gardell) an over weight policeman trying to loose weight, while his buddy mocks him. Then we meet Molly (Melissa McCarthy) an overweight school teacher who is also trying to loose weight while her slender mother and sister carry on their glutinous lifestyle in front of her without gaining a pound. The pair of lonely hearts meet at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting and are instantly charmed by the other’s humour and good nature. Too shy to ask each other out they bumble along before Mike builds up the courage to tell Molly how he feels.

It is good to see real average people portrayed on TV and both Gardell and McCarthy play their roles well, although too much of the humour relies on them being fat as their defining characteristic. I can’t imagine that Mike and Molly was creator Mark Roberts’ dream project, it feels terribly formulaic with the stereotypical meet cute, the fat gags, the slut gags, the pot gags and the I’m the token black man gags.  The two main characters are quite engaging, and you can buy into their awkward and innocent relationship, there feels like there might even be some heart in there. For the most part the show easy viewing, but fails to push any buttons that would make inspire me tune in next week. Maybe reflecting the main characters’ tastes it is all a little too sweet; although the supporting cast do their best to give it some edge, they just feel wacky for sake of a few jokes. Katy Mixon however, is sorely wasted as Molly’s mother, much in the same C. C. H. Pounder was wasted in last years failed sitcom Brothers.

In the crowded arena of sitcoms Mike and Molly does little to stand out from the crowd, but it may do OK with an audience tired of the overused odd couple scenario, I certainly felt less anger towards this show than I did towards Melissa and Joey.

Created / Written by: Mark Roberts
Directed by: James Burrows
Starring: Billy Gardell, Melissa McCarthy, Reno Wilson, Katy Mixon, Nyambi Nyambi, Swoosie Kurtz
Date premièred: 20th September 2010
UK Details: TBA

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Review: Melissa and Joey

Saturday, September 11th, 2010

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

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Review: Hot in Cleveland

Saturday, June 26th, 2010

For many it seemed that the height of Betty White’s fame would be in The Golden Girls, when the series was cancelled in 1992 the stars struggled to find other memorable roles and then over the past couple of years three of them gave up completely and shuffled off this mortal coil. Betty White however has fast became a Facebook sensation when a group asking for her to host Saturday Night Live picked up over half a million fans.  At 88 she was the oldest person to host the iconic show and gained the highest in ratings in two years. Hot in Cleveland sees her return to sitcom, although only intended to be in the pilot the producers were so pleased with her performance she is to become a series regular.

The show opens with 3 friends flying Paris, to celebrate one of them getting divorced, however when the flight gets diverted the trio end up in Cleveland. Here the three girls from Hollywood who have so often been over looked for younger prettier specimens suddenly find themselves top of the food chain.  What is more the men are polite, people are not so judgemental and the cost of renting a house for a month is the price as Paris hotel for a night.  Untimely the trio decide to stay, but they have a house cleaner (Betty White) thrown into the mix. While the stay is first said to be temporary there is little doubt this is where the women will stay.

The show deals with the concerns that many of us have when we hit our mid-thirties and start to wonder if our best days and opportunities are behind us.  Stressed by a job we hate and tired and broke keeping up appearances (because how could we possibly get by without the latest i-phone, shoes or car) is a tough life to lead. Escaping to a place less judgemental, with lower expectations of you can sound tempting. But do you want to be a big fish in a small pond, or a small fish ocean, or as the show puts it Paris for a weekend or Cleveland for month.

Hot in Cleveland marks a first for TV Land, this is the first original scripted show for a channel previously reliant on reruns so it is fitting that the show feels like a throw back to a day of non-offensive risk free comedy.  Even the choices the characters make feel safe, with few consequences. The traditional set up and studio audience made this feel like 100 other comedies that require little involvement from the audience and can be enjoyed when channel hopping throws up no suitable alternatives.

Created / Written by: Suzanne Martin
Directed by: Michael Lembeck
Starring: Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, Wendie Malick, Betty White
Date premièred: 16th June 2010 (TV Land)
UK Details: TBC

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Review: Brothers

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Don Reo is a seasoned TV writer, his work spans from Jimmy Durante Presents the Lennon Sisters (1969), through M*A*S*H (1976), Blossom (1990), Everybody Hates Chris (2007) and now in 2009 he gives us Brothers.  On paper this could be a worthwhile sitcom, we have Daryl Mitchell, former American footballer Michael Strahan, Carl ‘Apollo Creed’ Weathers and the fabulous CCH Pounder. In reality we have an overwhelmingly weak and predictable sitcom that will be lucky last far past the two episodes that have already aired.

In the pilot we meet two brothers Mike (Michael Strahan) an American Football Player and Chill (Daryl Mitchell) who is paralysed from the waste down after a car accident.  They brought back together by their strong willed mother (CCH Pounder) with news that their father (Carl Weathers) had suffered a stroke. In reality there are many secrets under the surface, Chill’s restaurant is failing, Mike has been screwed out of all his money by his agent and while their father has not suffered a stroke, he does seem to have Alzheimer. We learn that brothers have fallen out because Chill blames Mike for the accident since he was supposed to pick him up from a party and after he no showed he got a ride with a friend who was drunk. Their mother needs them all to pull together so they can survive these difficulties.

There could be a good blend real life difficulties to bring out humour, instead we are left catchphrases “He’s an idiot and I love him”, an over used joke about shaven testicles or “wiggly-do”as it is called and gags about the gap in Strahan’s teeth. When all is said and done, you have to look at CCH Pounder and wonder what the hell she is wasting her time doing this crap for. This is not to say she is bad, she is the best thing in the show and it is great seeing her do comedy, but coming off The Shield , you would think she could spot a good script, but their precious little for her to work with here.

The second episode appeared to erase all talk of the father’s Alzheimers as well as much of the resentment between the brothers.  Money troubles seems to have eased since they all joined forces to work in the restaurant and everyone enjoys a lifestyle that would make the average American’s jaw drop – they have a pool house and claim money is tight.

Had not The Beautiful Life: TBL already been cancelled I would have put this top of my list of shows that would disappear and never be spoke of again, as it is we will have to wait to see how long it will last.

Written by: Don Reo
Directed by: Ted Wass
Starring: Michael Strahan, Daryl “Chill” Mitchell, Carl Weathers, CCH Pounder
Date premièred: 25th September 2009
UK Details: TBC – but very unlikley

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Review: Cougar Town

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

Sitting down to watch the much hyped Cougar Town I was surprised by its 22 minute run time, I had been expecting something more akin to Desperate Housewives, but since Eastwick seems to have gone that route, the single camera sitcom format is perfect. Created by Bill Lawrence the man behind Spin City and Scrubs, it stars Courtney Cox (Friends and Dirt) the show is certainly packing some veteran talent, even relative new comer Dan Byrd (Aliens in America) delivers a confident performance.

Newly divorced realtor Jules (Courtney Cox) is suddenly aware of her age, her sagging  body and prospect that she is doomed to spend the rest of her life a single mum. Although she thinks she has a close and kooky relationship with her son Travis (Dan Byrd), she is unaware of how she embarrasses him. Her younger friend Laurie (Busy Phillips) wants to get her out of the house and so she ends up in bar and later back her place to enjoy the benefits of sex with younger guy. A new world has opened up and for the first time in a long time she feels alive and unfortunately for her 17 year old son this is something he is going to have to get use to.

This is one busy pilot, almost as if it was written for an hour slot and boiled down, scenes struggle to last longer than the annoying guitar music that segways over each cut. At such break neck speed it is hard to keep track with all the characters, and rather than well formed B and C stories we get one big over complicated A story. What makes this frustrating is there is a lot of really good moments, characters and ideas here, we just are not given the time to enjoy them.  Hopefully as the series continues the pace will slow down so we catch our breath and enjoy the show.

We have become very use to seeing older guys with younger girls, but the Cougar movement is certainly challenging those expectations.  We have seen it in Desperate Housewives, joked about it on SNL, sighed at Accidentally on Purpose, but Cougar Town despite its title, might be the first to really examine the plight of the single middle aged woman.  The term Cougar is almost a misnomer here, Jules is just woman who has opened her eyes to the possibilities before her, she might even have the power to re-brand the Cougar as something exciting rather than scary. However, there is one bug, Courtney Cox still looks kinda hot, she still has a great body and all those other shallow things we look for, the idea that she is over the hill just is not realistic so it is hard to make an emotional connection to her dilemma when many women that age (and younger) would kill to look that good.

This is a fairly solid first outing for Bill Lawrence’s new show, scrubs had run its course (however, it is being rebooted later this year as Scrubs: Interns), so it must be good to for him to sink his teeth into something new.  The characters are all interesting to watch, although Courtney Cox’s new character doesn’t feel like she has too many differences to her most famous role as Monica, while Christa Miller is playing nearly exactly the same character as she did on scrubs. This isn’t bad thing, the actors are very comfortable in these shoes and revel in the performance. The comedy is more mature than we have seen from Bill in the past due to the sexual nature of the story.  This doesn’t feel like Scrubs or Spin City dumped in Florida, it stands confident in its own shoes.

The first episode performed very well and I expect in the coming weeks the initial order of 13 episodes to extended for a full 22.

Created and Written by: Bill Lawrence, Kevin Biegel
Directed by: Bill Lawrence
Starring: Courteney Cox, Dan Byrd, Ian Gomez, Brian Van Holt, Josh Hopkins, Christa Miller, Busy Philipps
Date premièred: 23rd September 2009
UK Details: Living 2010

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Review: Accidentally on Purpose

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Like the mass of new hospital based dramas, this year also sees a huge Cougar movement.  This has been brewing for a while in shows such as The New Adventures of Old Christine, Desperate Housewives and a popular sketch on Saturday Night Live, however it is also prevalent in reality with Demi Moore, Madonna and Hale Berry. While Accidentally on Purpose is not the biggest cougar show of the season (that title goes to Cougar Town – reviewed soon), it is the first.

In case you are asking what a cougar is, the Urban Dictionary defines a cougar as “An older woman who frequents clubs in order to score with a much younger man. The cougar can be anyone from an overly surgically altered wind tunnel victim, to an absolute sad and bloated old horn-meister, to a real hottie or milf.” Our hottie in question here is celebrity scientologist Jenna Elfman, who you might remember from Dharma And Greg or not… the show was quite forgettable.

So the show starts with Billie (Jenna) at her work party with her quirky friend Olivia (Ashley Jensen, who you might remember as the quirky friend in Ugly Betty and Ricky Gervais’ quirky friend in Extras), Billie has recently broken up with her boyfriend since he was not going to propose and now 37 she is feeling a little over the hill. Then she gets hit on by young 20 something chef Zach (Jon Foster), they go back to his bachelor pad and make babies on his mattress on the floor.

Now pregnant Billie decides to break off the relationship, but Zach’s dad walked out on him when he was a kid and he doesn’t want the same for his child, so although the relationship is sexually over he now moves in.

There you have it, the pilot sets the scene for Billie and Zach’s worlds of the professional and the young playstation playing bachelor to collide.  This episode is all set up and it is basically an odd couple comedy, beyond that there is nothing which is knock out funny or original, it just is a bog standard easy watching studio sitcom. There must be something bitter sweet for the actresses getting work from this the rise in popularity of the Cougar, on one hand they are getting work, but on the other they have been relegated to being portrayed as over the hill simply on account of their age on paper. In TV terms men at 37 have not yet reached the age where they can be classed as distinguished while women are clawing at the curtains desperate to get their hands on a wedding ring or a penis which ever comes first… no pun intended.

Written by: Ryan Murphy & Brad Falchuk & Ian Brennan
Directed by: Claudia Lonow
Starring: Jenna Elfman, Jon Foster, Ashley Jensen, Nicolas Wright, Grant Show, Lennon Parham
Date premièred: 21st September 2009
UK Details: TBC

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Review: Sons of Tucson

Friday, August 21st, 2009

It has been a few years since Malcolm in the Middle left the airwaves and not doubt this was spotted by studio execs as 2 possible replacements are heading to a screen near you in the near future. Malcolm in the Middle creator Linwood Boomer has his new family comedy series The Karenskys, while former Malcolm in the Middle star Justin Berfield (Reese) has turned his hand to producing (alongside Jason Felts, Harvey Myman & Todd Holland) in the upcoming “Sons of Tucson”.

Greg Bratman, Tommy Dewey created the show and will be writers and supervising producers for the series. The duo met at Princeton and have performed improv and two-man shows in New York and LA before turning to television. This is the first major writing credit they have received.

Sons of Tucson is another show that is using the current economic crisis as a jumping off point for the series. In this case three brothers are left home alone when their father is arrested for banking fraud and with their mother out of the picture, the kids are facing going to a foster home. Enter Ron Snuffkin (Tyler Labine), a loser who works in hardware store and lives in his car. The boys pay him to pose as their father so they can be enrolled into school and avoid anyone noticing that they have no parents at home. Of course Ron has troubles of his own and needs the kids for than just money… well almost he needs money, but more money than the kids have to offer. However his estranged mother has always wanted grand kids and now he has them. Ultimately both the kids and Ron realise that they need each other, Ron is allowed to move out of his car and into the shed and remain on the payroll to be their father as and when needed.

As with any pilot there is a lot of information to sift through as the world is set up, so although we get to know Ron we only get a very surface level view of the three kids – smart kid, loud kid, fat kid. Currently scheduled as a mid-season show to break up Fox’s animated Sunday lineup, Sons of Tucson will originally be commissioned for 6-13 episodes. This has the promise of being quite a good show, it is slightly off kilter with definite shades of Malcolm in the Middle and Arrested Development – Season 1 [DVD], but currently doesn’t look surpass either of these hits. I’ll be watching but my hopes for a new Malcolm in the Middle are now be rested on The Karenskys.

Written by: Greg Bratman, Tommy Dewey
Directed by: Todd Holland
Starring: Natalie Martinez, Jake Busey, Tyler Labine
Date premièred: Spring 2010
UK Details: None available.

This review is based on the pilot and 2 kids are being recast before the show goes to air. Such is the fickle world of TV.

A big thanks to www.malcolminthemiddle.co.uk for the updates and corrections.

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Review: The Cleveland Show

Saturday, August 8th, 2009

Seth MacFarlane’s Family Guy struggled on Fox for a couple of seasons before the execs decided that it wasn’t doing well enough and cancelled it. But all was not lost as public outcry got the show back on the air, but it short lived and the show was cancelled again in 2002.  For next few years DVDs continued to sell and the show syndicated on Adult Swim was still performing well.  Fox said lets have some more and Seth has been the darling of the channel ever since.  American Dad followed shortly after and then began rumours of a spin off show about Peter Griffin’s neighbour Cleveland.

The Cleveland Family

The Cleveland Family

The Cleveland Show has finally arrived.  Cleveland leaves Quahog with son in search of his dream in Hollywood.  On the way he passes through his home town and meets the girl he loved in high school who is now a single mother with a teenage daughter and smart alek toddler. Romance blossoms and Cleveland decides stay. While American Dad has a talking fish, Family Guy has a talking dog, The Cleveland Show has a talking bear.  Other neighbours include the local racist redneck, a middle aged hipster who lives with his mum.

So how does it stack up?  I have always been a fan of Seth’s work, it has done a great job in usurping the crown from the very tired animated rulers The Simpsons. Unfortunately there is little here to recommend in The Cleveland Show.  The family looks like a black version of the Griffins and you have to wonder how much election of a black president factored into the commissioning of the show (after all the other black sitcom Everybody Hates Chris just got cancelled leaving a gap in the market) but this show plays so heavily on stereotypes it boarders on offensive. They don’t hide this fact and even go as far as hanging a hat on it, “I hate it when white folks make a show they think black folk will watch.” Cleveland is not a character who excites very much, he kinda just goes with the flow, which means the people around him have to be over the top to generate the comedy. Even Stewie comments “What the hell, he’s getting his own show!”

With three shows running simultaneously, Seth is currently producing 66 episodes a year and that is a tall order for anyone.  We are yet to see how this will impact Family Guy and American Dad, but the outlook is not good.

Created by: Seth MacFarlane
Directed by: tbc
Starring: Mike Henr, Sanaa Lathan, Reagan Gomez-Preston, Kevin Michael Richardson, Seth MacFarlane
Date premièred: 27th September 2009
UK Details: TBC

In May 2009, the show was officially picked up for a first season consisting of 22 episodes, and a second season, consisting of 13 episodes.  The Cleveland Show is scheduled to début on 27th September 2009.

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