Monday, February 14, 2011

TV Review - Mad Love ("Pilot")

 MAD-LOVE-CBS.jpg


Airs: Mondays at 8:30/7:30c on CBS

Genre: Sitcom

The Set-Up: A pair of guy friends and a pair of girl friends merge when two of them start dating.  The other two despise each other, naturally.  Think Friends minus two people.  Or How I Met Your Mother minus one person.

The Good: The cast is surprisingly strong for a mid-season replacement sitcom.  Jason Biggs, Sarah Chalke, Judy Green, and Tyler Labine are are gifted and capable comedic performers.  Labine, who was so good on the CW's short-lived Reaper, is the standout.  His bit about trying to stifle a burp elicited the one honest laugh in the pilot.

The Bad: It says a lot about the quality of the writing when this cast can't make you laugh more.  The show needs a laugh track to disguise the dead air and flat jokes.  Chalke and Biggs (channeling his inner Ted Mosby) are thrown together as a couple too soon - nowhere to go from here other than to keep splitting them up and putting them back together.  Chalke seems way too neutered here - bring back the crazy-ass Scrubs Chalke!

The Verdict: Indistinguishable from the glut of other ensemble relationship comedies right now.  It needs to find its own voice.  If future scripts can match the talent of this cast, and the show settles into a comfortable rhythm, CBS might have a worthy lead-out to Mother.  When in doubt - let Labine loose.  That guy has the goods.  Grade: C

Source: http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/hammervision/2011/02/tv-review---mad-love-pilot.html

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