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Twitter'Accidentally on Purpose' review: A little bit pregnant
A casual poll among critic friends about CBS' new comedy "Accidentally on Purpose" takes me back two years ago when "The Big Bang Theory" came out. Across the board the reactions were: "horrible," "awful," "everything that is wrong with TV comedy today," "the worst pilot of the season," "I couldn't even finish watching it."
"Huh?" I thought. "Did we watch the same show?"
Because while I've never loved "Big Bang Theory," from the beginning I thought it was a solid sitcom with more than a couple laughs an episode and that Jim Parsons was giving a standout performance. It's never made it on to my DVR, but if I find myself killing time and it happens to be on, I'll watch and -- more often than not -- enjoy it.
I feel exactly the same way about "Accidentally on Purpose."
Most others seem to think "A.O.P." is D.O.A., but I'm of the mind that it's a solid effort and fits well with the direction CBS' Monday night comedy line-up seems to be taking. While hardly a bridge between the very different comic sensibilities of "How I Met Your Mother" and "The Big Bang Theory," it does manage to fall somewhere in the middle.
Jenna Elfman plays Billie, a newspaper film critic whose boss and boyfriend of three years (Grant Show) refuses to commit. They break up and she rebounds with Zack (Jon Foster), a much younger aspiring chef. Five weeks into their casual fling, she's pregnant. Whoops.
And, yes, while "Accidentally on Purpose" is based on real-life film critic Mary Pols' memoir "Accidentally on Purpose: The True Tale of a Happy Single Mother," this is basically "Knocked Up: The TV Series." Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Once Billie discovers that she's pregnant complications start piling on. Her ex decides he wants her back and Zack decides he wants to be involved with raising their baby since he himself had an absentee father. Billie discovers that he's actually living in the back of his van and invites him to move in with her ... platonically, of course.
Which all sounds very silly and contrived. And it is. But it's also rather pleasant.
Elfman is not an actress who grows on you. You either like her or you don't. I happen to. Show, who is not usually one would think of as a sitcom actor, has a stabilizing influence that grounds the show, while as Billie's best friend Olivia, Ashley Jensen ("Ugly Betty," "Extras") gets to occasionally steal it.
Ultimately, "Accidentally on Purpose" may not be your thing, which is fine, but it's also not worth working up a frothy hatred for either. Save that for FOX's "Brothers."
"Accidentally on Purpose" premieres Monday, Sept. 21 on CBS.
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Brill, I'm your biggest fan, but really a Jenna Elfman comedy... how 90's is this...
Brill, I'm your biggest fan, but really a Jenna Elfman comedy... how 90's is this...
I adore Jon Foster. I think he is an amazing actor and I feel that he is being wasted on this show. In fact, there is a great deal of talent on this show and it just isn't living up to the potential.
Brill:
I gotta agree with Mirdeb and essentially the rest of the universe and say this show ought to tank.
However, since I never underestimate the lowest common denominator intelligence of sitcom TV viewers (“According to Jim,†et all) and I have not seen the entire pilot, who knows what will happen.
From the few snippets I've seen, this show has more in common "The New Adventures of Old Christine" than "BBT," where Julia Louis-Dreyfus and company occasionally venture into that loud, frantic, screechy, manic behavior mode.
I adore Jenna Elfman. She was solid in "Edtv" and pretty damn good in "Keeping the Faith," precisely because she downplayed the hysteria (both physical and emotional).
Whenever she plays a character that screams, mugs, yelps and generally over-reacts at every opportunity, it gives me a headache.
If those qualities are on full display here, then "Accidentally on Purpose" reeks of a "Emily's Reasons Why Not" type of situation. Although CBS is much more patient than ABC, my prediction (I could easily be wrong): pulled or re-tooled after it fulfills its initial order.
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ill probably watch it
i always watch how i met your mother and will probably watch this one because its on after it
i didn't want to watch BBT at first because they canceled the class for it but i ended up loving it (not as much as the class though)
in this one they didn't cancel anything so i have no negative feelings about it
ill probably watch it
i always watch how i met your mother and will probably watch this one because its on after it
i didn't want to watch BBT at first because they canceled the class for it but i ended up loving it (not as much as the class though)
in this one they didn't cancel anything so i have no negative feelings about it
hate Elfman so that alone is a deal-breaker for me. why cast an actress who turns off so many ppl?
i think jon foster is such a HOTTIE!
Jenna Elfman is just not
funny. I still don't know
how Darma and Greg lasted so
long, except for the fact
that it was on the same
network that kept "according
to jim" forever. This show
is gonna tank faster than
Jason Alexanders show did,
remember that one? CBS kept
telling us it was funny, but
even they eventually gave in
and yanked it, the same
will happen to this show.
It's not a bridge between HIMYM and BBT, it's a bridge between HIMYM and Two and a Half Men. Get your facts straight.