I'm not gonna lie to you, folks:...

I'm not gonna lie to you, folks: This was rough. I'm not sure why ABC decided to go with this episode of Freddie Prinze Jr.'s new sitcom as the series premiere rather than the pilot, but whatever the reason, it certainly put us smack-dab in the middle of things and not necessarily in that good, we-meant-to-do-that kind of way. Meet our hero: He's a successful head chef at a big city restaurant who's got a horndog best friend (Beverly Hills, 90210'sBrian A. Green) for a neighbor and four, count 'em, four lovely ladies as his roommates. Let's see, there's the newly divorced sister and her tween-age daughter (who, I swear, says literally two words the whole half hour), the understands-English-but-speaks-only-Spanish grandmother and the boozy sister-in-law (because drunk grieving widows are hilarious!) and that's pretty much all we know about them so far. We spent far more time getting acquainted with Freddie's girl du jour, in this case, Gina from the old neighborhood a hot body who turns out to be too much of a homebody for our titular playboy. For example, when he offers her a daunting platter of haute cuisine, she protests, "I'm a mac-and-cheese girl. That's why you like me." Right on, sister. Oh, and it was nice knowing you.

At the very least, Freddie and the Notorious B.A.G. do have kind of a Scott Baio-Willie Aames chemistry going on here. Remember the glory years between Zapped! and the second season of Charles in Charge, before the Pembrokes disappeared, the Powells moved in and Buddy developed an adult-onset Forrest Gump gene? But mildly amusing screen presence aside, fellas, believe me when I say this: If I ever, ever catch the two of you doing a tandem Christopher Walken impression again, so help me, there will be dire consequences.