2 Broke Girls – “Pilot”
2 Broke Girls – “Pilot”
So I’ve liked Kat Dennings ever since a few years ago when I saw her on a bunch of episodes of E.R. and in The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Now she has a sitcom. She’s been great with that sort of cute smartass thing in several roles so why not do it weekly? Of course her brand of hipster sass borders on verbally abusing the customers and one wonders how exactly she could hold onto a job in the service industry. But, eh, fuck it: it’s television. Her tirade against two hipsters culminates in informing them that they make her vagina dry up. You can say that on network television now (there are also double entendres about the words “coming” and “wet”). The laugh track guffaws uproariously. The laugh track is overly aggressive on this show. It really wants you to know that “YOU SHOULD BE LAUGHING NOW” and it wants you to know that after just about every line.
Beth Behrs plays the other titular broke girl. Her character is Caroline, the daughter of a Bernie Madoff-like schemer who’s legal battles have rendered her penniless. She’s got the same “I’m rich and don’t know how to do normal people things” humor other shows have done but the writing deserves some credit for not making her a total clueless idiot. So congratulations to adding some depth to a stereotypical character. The ethnic minorities don’t fare as well. The owner of the diner the two broke girls work at is named Han “Bryce” Lee (played by Matthew Moy) and talks with an over-the-top accent. Ditto for the Eastern European cook Oleg (Jonathan Kite) who constantly hits on the girls. So I guess busting stereotypes is not something the show is interested. Who knows though? Maybe future episodes will establish Oleg as an intellectual and Bryce as a very good driver… Garret Morris is also in this. He basically plays Garret Morris. That is fine by me.
The is a show that tosses a casual joke about rape (not a particularly offensive one, but the just the word “rape” sets off some people’s “too far” meter) and later has the absurd image of a horse in the backyard of a Brooklyn apartment. The non-ethnic-stereotype characters on the show are entertaining and the leads are engaging. This sitcom has great potential for growth so I will definitely be checking it out the next few weeks. It could veer wildly towards the simple-minded dreck of other sitcoms or it could be clever and entertaining like the better ones. Time will tell, but I’m rooting for it.
Persistence of Vision 