I'm taking a break from art and music for a moment to tell you about a sitcom I really like. It's not going to change your life or go down in history as giving you one of the best half hours you've ever spent, but it's unpredictable, fairly well-written and has some genuinely interesting characters. The show I'm talking about is "My Boys" and Season 2 premieres Thursday night on TBS.
I first heard about the show last year when I used to watch "Sex and the City" reruns on TBS. The network was running a ton of ads for the premiere of "My Boys", and I started to get annoyed at this new show about a tight group of friends (five males and one female who works as a sports writer) who do a lot of drinking and talking about dating. I kept imagining a group of TV execs sitting around a table saying "let's market this as a 'Sex and the City' that men will actually watch!"
I was annoyed to the point of obsessive curiosity, so I tuned in on premiere night with the masochistic expectation of writhing and eye-rolling my way through the first episode of a series that would no doubt get canceled quickly due to being derivative and uninteresting.
Of course, I ended up really enjoying it and faithfully tuning in to every episode of the first season.
The plot centers around PJ, the cute, female, blond sports reporter with a group of five close male friends and one close female friend. The dudes are like her brothers, especially since one of them is her brother, except for the one or two with whom she has sexual tension (of course). They drink a lot and have a weekly poker night and talk about all their dating exploits. What makes them interesting is that they never spend too much time fitting the stereotypes you'd expect them to, they have a genuine rapport together, and they all do a great job of portraying the humor and familiarity that's written in their scripts. The actress who plays PJ does an especially good job of being beautiful, nice, funny and likeable. She's a girl's girl who is also believable as 'just one of the guys'.
This series also has one of the most hilarious peripheral characters I've seen in a long time. Johnny Galecki, perhaps best known as Darlene's boyfriend from "Roseanne", plays Trouty, a deliciously obnoxious and clueless hanger-on who lights up the small screen during each of his rare appearances. He plays his part perfectly, keeping you wondering how they could possibly keep him around, yet being just endearing enough to charm you. Here's a bit of Trouty in action:
Check out some other clips from the show:
Tune in tomorrow night for the season premiere!