Based on an Australian sitcom which must surely have been better than this uninspired mess.
Molly Shannon is Kath Day, a divorcee who's finally settling into single suburban life when her daughter Kim (Selma Blair) moves back in, having left her new husband Craig (Mikey Day). Kath isn't at all happy to see Kim, mostly because her arrival will put a crimp in Kath's relationship with Phil (John Michael Higgins).
There's so much wrong here that it's hard to know where to begin. Shannon and Blair aren't nearly far enough apart in age to be believable as mother and daughter,and neither is a talented enough comedienne to carry a sitcom. (I realize that this is borderline blasphemy where Shannon is concerned, but even in her Saturday Night Live days, I thought she was wildly overpraised.) Even if the show had better leads, the writing isn't very good; there's not a single memorable joke or punchline in the first episode.
The characters aren't very likable, either, uniformly shallow, self-centered, and unkind. It's possible for a show to get away with an assortment of selfish dimwits; My Name Is Earl does so, for instance. But what that show has that Kath & Kim lacks is the sense that the characters genuinely care about one another; even their stupidest behavior is motivated in an attempt to do the right thing. These characters are just selfish and unkind, to the extent that you barely believe that Kath and Kim are related at all.
The show's not aggressively unfunny, as Do Not Disturb was a few weeks back. It's just dull, flat, and entirely lacking in creativity or energy.
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