In the US: Wednesdays, 8.30/7.30c, ABC In the UK: Not yet acquired
If you needed proof that a laughter track – or at least a “live studio audience” – will kill 99% of all known US comedies dead, here’s Better With You to come up and smack you in your face and tell you to “wake up and smell the coffee”.
It’s the kind of show that deals in the occasional cliché like that. But only occasionally.
Now, underneath everything, it’s actually quite funny – despite that occasional flirtation with cliché. Okay, it’s very suspiciously like Rules of Engagement (and the near-forgotten What I Like About You) but this story of two sisters, one in a happy relationship for nine years but unmarried, the other getting pregnant and engaged to a guy she’s been dating for seven weeks, does have some good lines, some good actors, touches on some interesting aspects of relationships and – vitally – makes you laugh.
The trouble is the studio audience crushing every ounce of comedy out of the situation. Here, a trailer and a clip so you can see what I mean.
Cripes, there’s a lot of new TV to watch – and let’s not forget the old TV, which is returning en masse – and I’ve reviewed quite a lot of it. But there’s so much TV, in fact, that I’ve already decided to drop Nikita, Terriers and Lost Girl (which is now so just for kids). I’ve got last night’s new stuff to wade through now (Community, Shit My Dad Says – no euphemisms on this blog, Outsourced, 30 Rock, My Generation, Better with You) as well as Detroit 1-8-7, Modern Family (watching it with the mum in law on Sunday), Lone Star (which is going to be cancelled any minute, so I probably won’t bother, even though I hear it’s good), Hellcats (I might have to face up to fact that I’m never going to watch this, given we’re three episodes in now) and Boardwalk Empire (Martin Scorsese, Steve Buscemi, 1920s gangsters: it’s good so far, but I’m not gripped). But here’s what I have watched this week:
Being Erica: It’s back! It feels like it’s back-pedalled a bit since last season in terms of where Erica was in her life, but the new innovations, expanded cast, etc, are innovative and making this a must-watch again. Woo hoo!
Chuck: Woo hoo! Linda Hamilton! Dolph Lundgren! Olivia Mann! The Buy More! Oh. Scratch the last one. Not bad, some fun moments, but nothing exceptional – just like every other Chuck premiere episode in living memory. Dolph could have been used a whole lot better – a Dolph/Adam Baldwin face-off would have been awesome. Talking of which, where was Captain Awesome? I miss him.
Cougar Town: Mildly entertaining fun. But one thing’s for sure: Jennifer Aniston’s movies may suck, but she’s a great TV actress. Really, she needs to be on tele instead of cinemas.
The Gates: Turned out to be really quite a good series. Nothing totally outstanding, but a regular weekly bit of dark, supernatural fun. It ended well, too, with most of the story arcs dovetailing together quite nicely, but then leading naturally to a series of new plot threads that serve as a good cliffhanger – for a second season that’s probably never going to come, given the ratings. But you never know.
House: All change here, with Olivia Wilde off filming movies left, right and centre and of course Huddy. Good to see enough of a change in the format that the medical mystery wasn’t the centre of the episode and wasn’t exactly life threatening. Not sure about Cuddy’s new assistant but he could prove fun. And I’m definitely not sure about Huddy either – but that was well enough handled that I’m prepared to give it some time. Oh, more Wilson, please.
Life Unexpected: So much forced change here, too! Redundancies, new characters, explosions, slightly icky storylines lifted from Pretty Little Liars. Abby’s MIA and Erin Karpluk is, too, which means the show is going to have to work harder to grab my attention. Oh, hello, here’s Emma Caufield from Buffy and a new blonde barmaid – that’ll help ease the pain, anyway. Not remotely plausible in any aspect, but fun.
Mike and Molly: Switched it off after two minutes of terrifyingly bad jokes, most of them about fat people. Just don’t watch it.
Parenthood: Seems to be settling down – I’m not sure in an especially good way. Dax Shepherd’s storyline is just going all over the place (let’s move to New York. No, let’s stay in California. No, let’s tour the country. No, let’s stay in California). Erika Christensen’s storyline has yet to materialise. Monica Potter’s storyline is all about her being a bit mental. The kids aren’t really up to much. Only Lauren Graham and Peter Krause are really getting anything to do, and I’m not sure I actually like their characters. The resemblance (physically and in terms of voices) of William and Adam Baldwin is actually quite spooky, too.
Rubicon: Ooh. Sex. Still not sure what’s happening though. And I use the word “happening” loosely.
But what have you been watching?
As always, no spoilers unless you’re going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please. If you’ve reviewed something on your blog, you can put a link to it here rather than repeat yourself (although too many links and you might get killed by the spam filter).
Got a picture of David Tennant sitting, lying down or in some indeterminate state in between? Then leave a link to it below or email me and if it’s judged suitable, it will appear in the “Sitting Tennant” gallery. Don’t forget to include your name in the filename so I don’t get mixed up about who sent it to me.
The best pic in the stash each week will appear on Monday and get ten points; the runners up will appear on Friday (one per person who sends one in) and get five points.
You can also enter the witty and amusing captions league table by commenting on Monday’s Sitting Tennant photo, the best caption getting 10 points, everyone who contributes getting five points.
In case you haven’t come across it yet, the TV Writer Podcast is actually quite a nifty little thing you can listen to when you have a few moments free or are down the gym. Hosted by Canadian TV scriptwriter Gray Jones, it interviews US TV scriptwriters, discusses their programmes, how they write, the nature of the industry, what goes on behind the scenes (did you know that different acts in each Chuck script will often be written by different writers, for example?) and tips about getting into the industry.
While Jones is obviously not a journalist, it’s a decent hour talking to people who should get far more attention and who are the main creators of the TV shows we love. Or Eureka and Warehouse 13 in the latest podcast’s case:
Poor Katy Perry. As if marrying Russell Brand wasn’t bad enough, now her appearance on Sesame Street has been stopped because of complaints about her cleavage from parents. All she wanted to do was play dress up.
Yet, meanwhile, the show is busy parodying True Blood. There’s some weirdness going down on that street…
