Up All Night and The New Girl

Fall is officially here… at least according to the TV Guide, and with it, some new TV shows. Let’s take a look at two sitcoms, Up All Night and The New Girl.

 First, The New Girl, a sitcom about finding love and family in the place you might east expect to find it. The premise, a quirky girl (Zoey Deschenal from 500 days of Summer) who moves in with three guys she found on craig’s list. Predictable crazy hyjinks ensue. The show is a decently written sitcom and if you are a fan of that genre or a fan of sexy girls playing dorky girls, this show might tickle your funny bone. Though predictable as taxes and breaking no new ground, the show is harmless and offers a few laughs. One hopes that the shtick of the pretty girl who is too dorky for her own social good will be retired a bit and make way for more interpersonal funny situations and some slight character development.

My take: worth watching to see if they can get over the pilot hump and make a potentially very funny sitcom.

 

 Up All night, on the other hand, is tired before it begins and a waste of talent. The premise is two thirtysomethings who are surprised at the workload of raising a baby and… well.. that’s about it. Though it strives to tackle issues of balancing work and home life, the characters are horribly one dimensional and the “funny” moments are overdone and have been done, and done and done, before. Also, we skip the whole brand new infant phase and the baby is a few months old and yet the change of a diaper seems an insurmountable challenge. One hopes that given a few more episodes and some sort of character arc, the star power of Will Arnett and Christina Applegate won’t be a footnote in the cancelation notice. There is potential but without some drastic changes, this show will stay in the heap of “can totally skip” TV shows this fall.

My take: could be worth watching, but would take some serious changes and twists to hold anyone’s interest for long.