I had about 4 episodes of "Are you There Chelsea" on my DVR this weekend, and figured I might as well watch before deleting (I was looking for something I could have on in the background while grading a big pile of back-logged papers yesterday). This is not a good television program. I am going to put to the side for the moment the question of whether or not it is a funny program (which is not my cup of tea, but I suspect I am not in the target demo), but, funny or not, it is just not put together very well.
Jerry Seinfeld was never much of an actor, but he was almost always comfortable and easy to watch on camera. Laura Prepon seems a likeable young lady (she seems vaguely familiar, but I can't place what her previous work has been), but her acting, and that of the rest of the cast, is shockingly bad for a network program. Most of the time she seems as engaged in her role as Lindsey Lohan was in most of her sketches last night. The writing is clunky and cliched, and the pace is plodding. I am not familiar with the comedy of Chelsea Handler (who actually is the funniest and most interesting person on camera, though this is pretty rare) - maybe the show is intended to be an extended parody of a sitcom (half the time it does read like a really bad imitation of Cheers), and maybe at that level it is funny. The TVBYTHENUMBERS guys have this show as likely to be cancelled, so it looks like it wont be around much longer - I am curious though as to how something this bad got on the air in the first place - even on NBC's desperate air. I have been monitoring most of the Whitney episodes, and while I still don't particularly like it, I no longer detest it (the blond woman on that show, and Whitney's boyfriend, have begun to grow on me). ** -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
