Whitney: Non-Wedded 'Bliss'

 Thursdays at 9:30pm on NBC

Whitney has inspired more wrath from the TV enthusiasts on my Twitter feed, than any other new show; possibly more than all of them combined. I read one glowing review from Toronto Star critic Rob Salem but most other feedback was overwhelmingly negative. I’ve watched the first 2 episodes of Whitney and it’s definitely not great. It isn’t even very good. But it’s far from the worst thing I’ve ever seen. So why the intense hatred for this freshmen comedy? Perhaps people resent that NBC has gone all out to promote the show, while cult favourites like Parks and Rec and Community languish on the sidelines. Maybe it’s because an old school, multi-camera comedy filmed in front of a live studio audience is decidedly un-hip and doesn’t belong anywhere other than CBS. Whatever the case, critics and TV fans seem to take offense at its existence and are praying for a swift demise.

Whitney stars writer/comedian Whitney Cummings, who also penned the new CBS Comedy 2 Broke Girls. Much like ‘olden day’ comedies of the early 90’s the show is based on her stand-up material. Whitney plays a loud-mouthed photographer who lives in non-wedded ‘bliss’ with her long-term boyfriend Alex. The show explores the not so glamorous reality of couple-hood. Showering together is a frustrating spatial challenge/drowning hazard...rather than a sexy romp. Forgoing sex because you’re tired, full or can’t find cute underwear is a common occurrence. Pants are unbuttoned after dinner, stomach gas is an acceptable conversation topic, and impressing each other is no longer a concern.

What Doesn’t Work
The subject matter isn’t exactly groundbreaking.  Whitney and Alex’s relationship foibles are amusing but predictable. Tired clichés include pointing out who ‘wins’ in an argument, “But just so we’re clear. I won this.” and thinking of your partner as a fun sucker, “I have a girlfriend so I can’t engage in any type of merriment”.

 The comedy is too ‘jokey’. That’s not always a bad thing when the punch lines compliment the scene. After Whitney makes two major social gaffes at a wedding Alex quips, “Wow you’re on fire tonight. What are you closing with? Blackface?” But far too often dialogue is written to set up stand-alone jokes rather than develop characters and advance the plot.  Whitney’s friend is trying to figure out where an infamous actor/bartender will be serving drinks that night and Whitney cracks, “So he’s got two jobs his mom’s not proud of”. Nothing was worse than the horrible joke in the pilot about Whitney’s mother with the 7 parrots and 7 therapists having “14 things telling her she’s pretty.” Ridiculously implausible and pointless.

The supporting characters, Whitney and Alex’s whacky band of friends, are really, really awful stereotypes. There’s the lovely dovey couple who shove everyone’s face in their 5-times-a-week sex life; the bitter divorcee who hates men, curses the world and guzzles wine straight from the bottle; and the atrociously sleazy police man who thinks women are disposable and monogamy is a joke, “someone’s going for a ride-along tonight…on my face”

What Works
But there is a silver lining here folks. When Whitney gets real…something special happens. In the pilot episode Alex smacks his head on a table during a failed seduction attempt and ends up in the hospital. Whitney is distraught because her non-marital status leaves her exiled in the waiting room. She frets about Alex needing his special pillow and lashes out at her mom’s insensitivity. It was touching and endearing and actually mined interesting territory. Whitney’s mother bemoans marriage because it means you are stuck with someone forever and Whitney just stares at her and says “but I do want to be stuck with him forever.” Being in a long-term relationship (even when you don’t believe in marriage) is about more than bickering and ‘dry spells’. It’s about choosing someone. And THAT’S the dynamic that could give this show a real shot at success.

When they’re not slinging one-liners at each other Whitney and Alex have genuine chemistry. It shines through in the subtler moments.

Two other Whitney and Alex scenes that really worked for me were:

1) The role-play scene in the pilot where she dressed up like a sexy nurse and seduced him. The humour came from character Whitney’s character quirks (the fact that she wanted him to actually hand her his insurance card and fill out forms to add authenticity to the ‘seduction’) rather than lame punch lines.

2) The ‘first-date’ restaurant scene in the second episode. There was a lot of nonsense afterwards, but Alex’s genuine frustration at the bizarreness of the situation and Whitney’s real desire to ‘do it right’ was charming.

Whitney should continue to focus on the quirks that make its characters unique rather than the clichés that make them all too familiar.

Will I Continue To Watch This: I will for 2 reasons 1) It follows three NBC comedies I’m already watching and it’s easier just to PVR the whole block and 2) The fact that everyone hates it so much makes me want to root for it. I’m weird like that.

Ratings:  Whitney benefited from its Office lead-in and snagged 6.71 million viewers in its first week. It fell to 5.37 million viewers in its second week, which is not a HUGE drop, but not great either. People have already been predicting a quick demise, but as of now it’s still outperforming Community and Parks and Rec. We’ll have to wait to see if it holds steady or falls further to really get a sense of its potential. I’d be shocked if Whitney got the axe before NBC’s Wednesday night comedy Free Agents.

Welcome to Terra Nova

 Mondays at 8pm on Fox

“The world you left behind fell victim to base instinct, greed, war, ignorance. We destroyed our home. We blew it. But we have a second change to start over. A chance to get it right. Welcome to Terra nova folks. Welcome home”

In 2149, the greedy self-serving humans have ravaged Planet Earth. Life is difficult and dreary – everyone breathes through oxygen masks and families must adhere to a ‘two child policy’. Small things we take for granted, like oranges, are a big a freakin’ deal!

Married couple Jim and Elizabeth Shannon were so very much in love that they couldn’t stop at two little ones. When their other children, Josh and Maddy, were nearly in their teens, they had Zoe. Keeping her hidden from the authorities is a continuous struggle. When she’s eventually discovered, Jim lands himself in jail for assaulting a police officer.

While Jim is in the middle of a 5-year prison term, Elizabeth (a doctor) gets the call that most future-dwellers only dream about. She has been recruited to Terra Nova, a fledgling settlement 85 million years in the past – accessed through a fracture in the fabric of time. But it’s a one-way trip for Elizabeth, Josh and Maddy.  She’s not allowed to take Zoe. Somehow, the Shannons orchestrate an elaborate plan to get the family back together. Jim breaks out of prison, disables his tracker, picks-up a backpack full of cash, trades it for a larger one containing 5-year-old Zoe, sneaks onto the launch deck, and sprints through the portal to join his family in Terra Nova. Whew!

Now the Shannons have settled down in a ‘gated’ community at the centre of a lush green jungle; in a world where clouds are still visible, stars light up the night sky…and you might just get your head ripped off by a rampaging carnivorous dinosaur.  Welcome to Terra Nova!

The Players
Jim Shannon – The patriarch of the family. He’s trying to reconnect with his children after spending 2 years in the slammer, especially Zoe who barely remembers him. A former cop, he’s initially relegated to agricultural duty but quickly wins a spot on the security team when he thwarts an assassination attempt on the Commander. Jim is played by Jason O’Mara who was fabulous in the short-lived American adaptation of Life on Mars,

Elizabeth Shannon – A medical doctor, who was recruited to Terra Nova. She’s motivated by the desire to provide her children with a brighter future. Her first day on the job she’s attacked by a knife-wielding patient; a member of a rebel group living outside the gates of the settlement.

Josh Shannon – The eldest Shannon sibling, a 16 year old who develops a major attitude problem as soon as the family arrives in Terra Nova. Maybe he’s bipolar or perhaps it was poorly scripted, but the chip on his shoulder came out of nowhere. I guess teenagers are no less moody in the pre-historic era – but I really wanted to shove a sock in his snarky mouth. Or as my boyfriend put it, “Shut up Ephram! ” (he refused to watch Everwood solely because of how whiny and moody Ephram was and now uses him as a barometer for annoying teenagers on TV). Josh’s reckless behaviour lands him in serious danger after an unsupervised trek OTG (outside the gates) with a beguiling new female friend (Skye) ends with him stranded after nightfall in Acceraptor (aka Slasher) territory. 

Maddy Shannon – A shy, pretty 15 year-old girl with a passionate interest in history and science. She’s so cute! I think her awkward mannerisms and nervous verbal spewing is adorable. After two brief scenes together I’m already more interested in a potential romance between her and a cute, unidentified boy than anything between Josh and Skye. I hope Maddy gets some juicy plotlines.

Zoe Shannon – A precocious 5-year-old who lived in a world that never had room for her. She delights in her new surroundings. 

Commander Nathanial Taylor – The grizzled older man who runs Terra Nova. He was the very first person to cross through the time fracture and spent months surviving in the jungle alone. He believes strongly in the dream of a better tomorrow. Taylor’s son joined him on Terra Nova in the 2nd pilgrimage, but went missing several years ago.

Mira – The leader of the Sixers, a rebel group named for their place in the 6th pilgrimage to Terra Nova. Soon after their arrival it became clear that they had their own secret agenda. They high-tailed it out of the community and have set up camp outside the gates, periodically raiding Terra Nova for supplies.

The Setting:
Thinking about time travel makes my head hurt…so I avoid it at all costs. Thankfully this show quickly introduced a simple solution to the mind-fracking ‘butterfly effect’. After discovering the time fracture, scientists sent back a probe back with a beacon inside, but it never arrived millions of years later. They realized they were dealing with a new time-stream, making it possible to settle in the past without disrupting humanity’s current existence. A little too convenient? Sure. But I’d rather sweep the issue under the rug with a simple solution than deal with endless inconsistencies and frustratingly long-winded explanations about the nature of the time space continuum. K.I.S.S!

The Danger: 
Jurassic Park proved over 17 years ago that we could realistically bring terrifying dinosaurs to life on screen. But after 90 minutes of repetitive chase, escape, chase, escape scenes…I was over it. Terra Nova has already served up 2 Slasher attacks in the space of a two-hour premiere. If they plan on playing that card that every week, it’s going to get old fast. Monsters with giant teeth are scary, but I’ve been there, seen that and I need a new angle.

I’d actually like to see more of the ‘nice’ dinosaurs. A creature doesn’t have to treat humans like snack food to be compelling. The scene where tiny Zoe feeds leaves to the brachiosaur was beautifully done. Great ‘wow factor’ with the reveal of the massive scale of the dinosaurs as they leaned over the fence to munch on trees.

The Mystery:
Now THIS is the angle that just might hook me. It’s clear that the Sixers have an agenda, but Commander Taylor doesn’t know what they’re really after (or at least he claims not to). If someone from the future sent them back for a secret purpose, whom can he really trust?

Josh’s love interest, Skye, discovered mysterious geometric markings on rock formations near a waterfall outside the gates.  They look like equations that have been there for awhile, but who could have put them there? The whole area is off limits and when Commander Taylor discovers that Skye has been tramping though the jungle, he grills her specifically about whether she went near the waterfall. Clearly he knows something that he’s keeping close to the chest. There’s some insinuation that his missing son might be connected to the Sixers and/or the mysterious rocks.

At the end of the episode, Mira and several other Sixers meet-up at the rock formation. They’re aware of its existence, but is it connected to their mission?

Will I Continue Watching This?: I think so. Not all of it holds my attention, but I’ll give it a few more episodes and if the mystery continues to grow and develop, it could prove very interesting.

Ratings: Terra Nova managed only third place in its time slot with 9.03 million viewers for the first hour and 8.97 for the second. It was bested by Dancing with the Stars on ABC, as well as CBS’ comedy block (HIMYM, 2 Broke Girls, Two and a Half Men and Mike and Molly). Those aren’t terrible numbers, but this show is insanely expensive and high profile. I don’t think anything below 10 million will cut it.

2 Broke Cupcake Girls

 Mondays at 8:30pm on CBS

2 Broke girls is The Odd Couple for 20-something chicks. It stars Kat Dennings as Max, a Brooklyn waitress and part-time nanny with a sarcastic disposition and a sharp tongue to match. Max toils away at a greasy spoon, delivering a side of harsh truth with every order up. “No Hipster, no. Do not think we are on the same team. I wear knit hats when it’s cold out. You wear knit hats ‘cause of Coldplay.” Beth Behrs plays Caroline Channing a spoiled Manhattan socialite who lost everything when her dad was jailed in a Bernie Madoff style scandal. “I only have what I could grab and I grabbed all the wrong things!”

Caroline shows up at Max’s diner in a stylish Chanel suit (her one remaining designer ensemble) and charms her way into a job. But when she ‘marries the ketchups’ by lining them up two by two, Max quickly realizes she fudged her experience just a ‘tad’. Still, Max isn’t completely without heart and she begrudgingly takes pity on poor Caroline who is clearly way outside her comfort zone. When Max catches her sleeping on the subway the next morning, she even invites Caroline to crash at her place. After Max’s catches her skeazeball boyfriend cheating and gives him the boot, Caroline officially becomes her new roommate. Not that Max likes her or anything! But she could use the rent.

What Works:
We’re two episodes in and Max and Caroline already make a surprisingly great pair! I expected a more stereotypical dynamic; downtown vs. uptown, self-sufficient vs. entitled, but the writers mixed it up nicely. Sure, there are some aspects of life in a low tax bracket that Caroline isn’t accustomed to, (“do you have any more of those poor people chips?”), but while she is naïve, she’s not snooty or bitchy. She has a plucky ‘go get em’ attitude no matter what the situation. The contrast between her sunny disposition and Max’s sullen mood is hilarious. At the diner Max tells Caroline, “Don’t smile ‘cause it raises the bar and then I have to smile and I can’t be doing that”.  Caroline wakes up early to do dishes and, make coffee and work out a plan for success! While Max stumbles out of bed and sneers in disgust at the daylight. “Think of me as a vampire without the all the annoying marketing.”

With less capable writers, it would be hard to buy these two as friends, but here they bring out the best in each other. Max pretends not to give a shit about the future, but she’s just not used to dreaming big. Caroline, who has already lived a fabulous lifestyle, believes anything is possible! One needs to be pushed to take chances and the other needs a dose of reality once in awhile.  Caroline sees the untapped potential in Max’s cupcake baking skills and concocts a plan that will see them opening their own bakery together. They ONLY need $250,000 to fund their operation, which should allow for at least a ‘few’ more seasons hilarity. I love the running tally of their savings at the end of the episodes. Really nice touch!

What Doesn’t Work
I could do without the throwaway bit players; the sleazy cook who aggressively hits on Max and the old African American guy who hangs out at the front of the diner (What exactly is his job? Is he DJ-ing at a greasy spoon???). And aside from his goofy name, Asian diner owner Bryce Lee has nothing to offer other than the occasional accidental glance up Caroline’s skirt. A show with this much potential can do better. I did chuckle at the spacey young mother who Max babysits for (“I need to hold one of the babies, bring me one. No, the other one – that’s not the good one”) but that entire plot seems out of place. Anything that doesn’t bring Max and Caroline into the same space is useless filler as far as I’m concerned.

I really hate the horse. It’s nice that Caroline can keep a (rather large) token of her former life, but after you’ve seen a delicate blonde girl covered in horse poop…what else is left? Also, the “Chanel #2” joke? Egads!

Will I Keep Watching this?: Absolutely. It’s great to see two females shine together as a comedy duo.

Favourite Quotes: 
There were so many great lines and I’ve used some of the best ones in the body of the blog already. But here are few more gems:

Max (when she first lays eyes on Caroline): “Whatever that is, it does not belong in this diner. It belongs in a show on Bravo.

Max: “Do you know Paris Hilton?”
Caroline: “No She’s like 100!”

Ratings: The numbers for first week were phenomenal because it debuted after the blockbuster season premiere of Two and a Half Men. 2 Broke Girls got 19.15 million eyeballs in the deal.  In its second week the show moved to its regular 8:30pm timeslot, following How I Met Your Mother. Although viewership naturally dropped, the numbers stayed strong at 11.26 million (better than week 2 of HIMYM).