drudo182
09/22/08, 02:55 PM
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Worst Week premieres tonight on CBS. Looks like it could be really funny and USA Today gave it a three-star review. It's based on the british TV series. Hoping it has some potential
Worst Week, from the mind of Matt Tarses (Scrubs), is an American take on the British series The Worst Week of My Life. This CBS single camera offering centers on a young couple dealing with the groom's soon-to-be-in-laws during a family vacation.
Pilot:
Sam and Mel intend to reveal her pregnancy to her parents after a quiet dinner. However, when Sam misses the train after having a drunk girl throw up on him, the dinner starts becoming increasingly unlikely.
USA Today review:
Seldom have worse things happened to a nicer guy.
And for all the cleverness of its compound disasters, the key to Worst Week is the good-guy appeal of its soon-to-be star, Kyle Bornheimer. Terrible things happen to Bornheimer's Sam in tonight's premiere of TV's latest British transfer, most of them of his own making. He goes from bad to worse in no time flat, a victim of bad luck, bad timing and really bad ideas.
And yet, through it all, Bornheimer imbues Sam with an infectious puppy-dog charm, laced with a surprising, crackling wit. Sam is not a dummy and — even more important for the long-run health of the show — he's not a jerk. His troubles almost always stem from trying to do the right thing, just in the wrong way.
As we meet him, he's trying desperately to impress his soon-to-be in-laws, well-played by two consummate pros, Kurtwood Smith and Nancy Lenehan. They don't know that he's engaged to their daughter, Melanie (Erinn Hayes), or that she's carrying his child. All they know is that when Melanie's "friend" shows up at the house, trouble follows.
So it does tonight in a parade of slapstick gags, each building on the next until the show becomes laugh-out-loud funny. Many of them have been spoiled by the promos, so I won't spoil any more here. But suffice it to say that the capper joke is just as grand as it needs to be.
Yet for all that it revels in catastrophe, the most promising aspect of Worst Week is a sweet-tempered empathy that allows you to identify with all four characters. You can see why Melanie's parents are horrified, and, thanks to Bornheimer's intense likability, you can see why Melanie is entranced. Through it all, Hayes keeps Melanie on Sam's side, which keeps us on his side as well. As long as her affection is clear, the audience can sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.
The question is, for how long? In the British original, the "worst week" in the title was applied literally. The show ran for two seven-episode seasons, with each episode representing one day in a week of this couple's life (with a three-episode Christmas reunion thrown in as a post-series special).
It's not clear how American adaptor Matt Tarses can stretch that story out to American series length without either running out of disasters or straining the limits of our patience or belief.
But that's a problem for another week. This week, at least, we get a wildly funny sitcom that's an ideal addition to CBS' lineup.
You could do a lot worse.
Worst Week premieres tonight on CBS. Looks like it could be really funny and USA Today gave it a three-star review. It's based on the british TV series. Hoping it has some potential
Worst Week, from the mind of Matt Tarses (Scrubs), is an American take on the British series The Worst Week of My Life. This CBS single camera offering centers on a young couple dealing with the groom's soon-to-be-in-laws during a family vacation.
Pilot:
Sam and Mel intend to reveal her pregnancy to her parents after a quiet dinner. However, when Sam misses the train after having a drunk girl throw up on him, the dinner starts becoming increasingly unlikely.
USA Today review:
Seldom have worse things happened to a nicer guy.
And for all the cleverness of its compound disasters, the key to Worst Week is the good-guy appeal of its soon-to-be star, Kyle Bornheimer. Terrible things happen to Bornheimer's Sam in tonight's premiere of TV's latest British transfer, most of them of his own making. He goes from bad to worse in no time flat, a victim of bad luck, bad timing and really bad ideas.
And yet, through it all, Bornheimer imbues Sam with an infectious puppy-dog charm, laced with a surprising, crackling wit. Sam is not a dummy and — even more important for the long-run health of the show — he's not a jerk. His troubles almost always stem from trying to do the right thing, just in the wrong way.
As we meet him, he's trying desperately to impress his soon-to-be in-laws, well-played by two consummate pros, Kurtwood Smith and Nancy Lenehan. They don't know that he's engaged to their daughter, Melanie (Erinn Hayes), or that she's carrying his child. All they know is that when Melanie's "friend" shows up at the house, trouble follows.
So it does tonight in a parade of slapstick gags, each building on the next until the show becomes laugh-out-loud funny. Many of them have been spoiled by the promos, so I won't spoil any more here. But suffice it to say that the capper joke is just as grand as it needs to be.
Yet for all that it revels in catastrophe, the most promising aspect of Worst Week is a sweet-tempered empathy that allows you to identify with all four characters. You can see why Melanie's parents are horrified, and, thanks to Bornheimer's intense likability, you can see why Melanie is entranced. Through it all, Hayes keeps Melanie on Sam's side, which keeps us on his side as well. As long as her affection is clear, the audience can sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.
The question is, for how long? In the British original, the "worst week" in the title was applied literally. The show ran for two seven-episode seasons, with each episode representing one day in a week of this couple's life (with a three-episode Christmas reunion thrown in as a post-series special).
It's not clear how American adaptor Matt Tarses can stretch that story out to American series length without either running out of disasters or straining the limits of our patience or belief.
But that's a problem for another week. This week, at least, we get a wildly funny sitcom that's an ideal addition to CBS' lineup.
You could do a lot worse.