May 31, 2010

TV: 100 Questions (NBC, Thu 8:30)

NBC's dumping this sitcom into the summer TV wasteland, suggesting that even they don't expect it to find much of an audience, and they're probably right. But it's not the absolute disaster that might lead you to expect.

The premise is interesting: Each episode begins with Charlotte (Sophie Winkleman) in the office of a dating service, where her "dating counselor" (Michael Benjamin Washington) is giving her the 100-question personality test that will allow them to find her "soulmate." Each question (which is the title of that week's episode) triggers a lengthy answer from Charlotte in the form of a story about her and her friends, and that story makes up the episode, before the final scene returns us to Charlotte and the counselor.

The supporting cast isn't terribly well developed yet, though that's not unusual after only one episode. They are a Friends-esque bunch of attractive 30-somethings. Jill (Colette Wolfe) is the tramp; Leslie (Smith Cho) is slightly ditzy, and a bit insecure about dating after the recent end of a long relationship; Mike (Christopher Moynihan, who also created the show) is the blandest of the group so far; and Wayne (David Walton) is the charming ladies' man. They're a likable group, and they work well together; Cho makes a particularly good impression, and has a nifty way of putting an odd spin on a punchline.

But the writing isn't up to the level of the cast. It's not dismally bad, mind you, just sort of bland and uninspired. And at a time when the sitcom is making a creative resurgence, bland and uninspired aren't going to keep a show around for very long. I'll give the show another week or two in hopes that the writing might somehow improve to the level the cast deserves, but I'm not particularly optimistic.

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