Techtite's TV Reviews!

"Yes, this all sounds like a reverse gender Dream On, which is what I love about it."

---from the review

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The New Quirkiness of Old Sitcoms. It helps any sitcom when there's some cute quirkiness. "Old" Christine loves Supertramp, for example. It's a little fact that makes the character more developed.  I'm reminded of a similar quirkiness to the 1980's sitcom Night Court, which right in the series premiere established Judge Stone's love for Mel Torme; "I'll marry the first girl who's impressed when I say that." Seinfeld had such quirkiness too; remember the constant references to his beloved childhood film, Superman: The Movie? Little details like this make characters more life-like, and overall, fun to watch.

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The New Adventures of Old Christine

A Review by Techtite

Some sitcoms give you that vibe, right in the series premiere. Sometimes the vibe is "big hit." Sometimes the vibe is, "I give this six episodes." Yet sometimes you just don't know. You like some of the premise, and you like the characters a lot, so you hope it's given a chance to retool itself, in good time. That said; I hope that CBS does give The New Adventures of Old Christine a chance, if just because the premise and cast are so extremely likeable, you can nearly overlook all the sitcom's faults.

Fault number one? A laugh track. Look at the photo at left, of Christine in bed. Do you see a joke? The laugh track did. If a sitcom is funny, please; use a live audience! If a sitcom's jokes aren't too funny, well, let the viewers make the call. Don't try to "make" people laugh with fake laughter. If this sitcom is going to have a Scooby-Doo style faux "audience" that laughs at any stop sign, you can kiss Christine goodbye.

That would be a shame, because, seriously; how appealing are these quirky characters? There's Julia Louis Dreyfus in the lead role, as the randy divorcée. At home are two likeable relatives, in the form of son Richie (Trevor Gagnon) and live-in brother, Matthew (Hamish Linklater). At school there is the perennially perky doting moms Marly and Lindsay (Tricia O'Kelley and Alex Kapp Horner), who are always meddling in Christine's latest crisis. These two are my favorite supporting players so far. Imagine if Murphy Brown had two Corky Sherwoods to bounce Murphy's sardonic zingers against. In short this sitcom's cast is a big plus. Many failed sitcoms have dull characters. I don't get that feeling here.

The premise is interesting, too. Christine is a divorced mom, only now entering the date scene again. It doesn't help her self esteem any when her husband Richard (Clark Gregg) is dating a woman (Emily Rutherfurd) who is young enough to be Richard's niece. To male matters worse; her name is Christine. So suddenly cynics are referring to his new girlfriend as "new Christine" and our quasi-heroine as "old Christine." It's time Old Christine started some new adventures!

Yes, this all sounds like a reverse gender Dream On, which is what I love about it. True, that was an HBO series, which meant there was raunchiness and R rated humor at every turn. Yet when Christine's first new date is with special guest star Andy Richter, you know there's going to be some funny jokes, network TV or no network TV.

Unfortunately there's fault number two: unlikely situations. The whole shtick where Christine tries to pick up a date at the supermarket was gratingly humorless. Picking up dates at the supermarket doesn't sound "real," even if a few nerds actually do pick up dates there. Don't worry; I won't make any comparisons to Seinfeld, but the fact is, every successful sitcom draws its humor from real life: The Cosby Show, Frasier, Friends, The Office, and so on. Julia is much funnier when doing something we all can see the humor in, like trying to dump a date who just won't get the message, or feeling blue when her son goes to grade school for the first time. We can all relate to moments like that.

One last thing: Matthew, the brother character. He's a nice idea put to the wrong use. While the sibling dynamic between Christine and Matthew is believable, it is slightly awkward when she's asking him for tips on how to find someone to have a one-night-stand with. I can imagine a sister coming to her brother if she likes his best friend, but asking your brother to come with you as you look for a date...? That's just wrong. I like the brother character though, so I hope he doesn't go the way of Richie Cunningham's older brother in Happy Days; a character so "written off," even the series finale acted like he was never there at all.

Will this sitcom succeed? Well, it has a good cast and a good premise, but there is no harm in smoothening the rough patches here and there. If given the chance it needs, and if the right retooling is done, there is definitely a foundation for a good sitcom here. Remember how Night Court retooled itself completely? They kept what worked ---all of three main characters--- and fired the rest. I don't see that much need for retooling here, but if it makes the necessary little changes, we can all see many more adventures for good old Christine.

---Techtite

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