TV: Twins

This is the first time I've set the goal of watching at least one episode of each of the new fall TV series. There are a few I don't have terribly high expectations for, and Twins was one such. It is, therefore, a surprise to report that it's not utterly wretched; it's just uninspired and bland.

Sara Gilbert and Molly Stanton star as twin sisters Mitchee and Farrah, who are about to be given joint control of the family's lingerie company. Mitchee is the brains, and designs most of the company's garments; Farrah is the beauty, and the company's lead model. Their feuding parents are played by Mark Linn-Baker and Melanie Griffith, and their physical contrast is supposed to help make Gilbert and Stanton more plausible as twins. (It doesn't.)

Twins is not an ambitious show; it's content, for instance, to get most of its laughs in the first five minutes from the repetition of the phrase "butt-pucker." The pretty-sister/plain-sister jokes are stale, and ironically, Gilbert's character is so much less neurotic and tightly wound than many she's played in the past that while she's certainly no bombshell, she's much prettier here than she's ever been.

The depressing thing is that Twins is just so lazy. Gilbert and Linn-Baker are experienced, talented sitcom veterans; Griffith doesn't quite have the right timing for TV yet, but is otherwise quite good in her role. The show is created by the team who gave us Will & Grace, so there's certainly some talent behind the scenes. And yet the show just sits there, content to be mediocre. What a waste.