Have our standards really ...
Question: Have our standards really lowered to the point that the majority of TV critics like the dull and boring time-waster
Worst Week? I don't like the actors, the writing is lazy and it is a direct rip-off of
Meet the Parents (which was great for almost an hour). Let's set the bar a little higher!
Answer: To what, the late and unlamented
Do Not Disturb?
Kath & Kim? (Which I defy anyone to watch when it premieres this Thursday and think is funnier than
Worst Week). Face it. Hot new TV comedy is in very short supply these days, and maybe you should forgive us for embracing something that actually made at least a few of us laugh out loud. If the ratings are a clue, and in this case they probably are (judging from the drop-off from lead-in
Two and a Half Men),
Worst Week is not going to be to many people's taste. It's a departure for CBS (which rarely goes well for this most traditional of networks) and an odd duck in being both a very broad slapstick what-could-go-wrong-next farce and yet being played naturalistically, in the prevailing one-camera filmed format. I happen to like the lead actor, Kyle Bornheimer, quite a bit, because he doesn't overplay it, and comes off more Charlie Brown than hyper Ben Stiller. (The similarities to
Meet the Parents are lost on no one.) As his foil, Kurtwood Smith is a pro, and I don't think we're setting the bar very low when we point out these assets. But without question,
Worst Week is hardly a model of sophistication, and some of the gags are painfully telegraphed (especially, in week two, Sam attacking the brother who's trying to break into the family's house). Still, there's a goofiness about the whole thing and a likability to poor Sam that makes me smile. Comedy is, as always, subjective. You should see the divergent mail I get on shows even as non-controversial as
The New Adventures of Old Christine, which I wish still occupied this time period. Something tells me we may not have that many weeks of
Worst Week to argue about.
