For the most part, the cast of NBC's newest Thursday night comedy, Perfect Couples is a talented bunch. It's the writing, directing and behind-the-scenes folks who are dicking up what could otherwise, with a few changes, be a decent comedy and help to drag NBC out of their deep gutter.

My first gripe has to do with Olivia Munn. I, along with plenty of Americans, find her grating. She's not funny and couldn't utter a funny line if someone was holding a gun to her head. She is a cinder block around the ankle of the show. Oh, sure, some people think she's hilarious because she's easy to look at. We get it, she has boobs, hell, 50% of the world's population has boobs but that doesn't mean I want to see them all once a week or that they are funny people. I don't like her and apparently millions of Americans don't like her (or the series as a whole) either because a number just above nobody is watching Perfect Couples each week. It's a shame too because if you're watching a show purely based on boobs you've A.) a very sad and shallow person and B.) clearly ignoring other, far more appealing female cast member of the show.

Take, for instance, Christine Woods (I couldn't tell you her character's name but she plays the wife from the normal couple). She does her best to work with the dog shit lines and terrible directing that plague this show. She's also easy as hell on the eyes. In fact I'm probably going to hang a poster of her on the back of my bedroom door this weekend. (I'm kidding?) While she was anything but stellar in her role as a lesbian FBI officer in last year's God-awful Flash Forward on ABC, she's clearly far better suited for comedic roles. She seems to play her role at a higher level than the rest of the cast and excels -- I would actually bill her as the true star of this seemingly cobbled-together cast.

If you're still in it purely for the eye candy factor, there's the third female cast memeber, Mary Elizabeth Ellis (the female half of the crazy couple). She's probably better known for her role as "The Waitress" from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia on FX but she brings at least a serviceable amount of crazy to her Perfect Couples role. She's also easy on the eyes but not quite to the level of Christine Woods. In the crazy department, too, she is one-upped by her fiance's character, played by David Walton. Hell, he even has scruffy facial hair and generally messed up hair to add to his level of crazy in the show. As much as I wanted not to laugh at this show from its pilot episode, I've now found myself laughing at his antics as well as those of Christine Woods and her husband, played by Kyle Bornheimer (from the failed CBS comedy Worst Week). While I know, almost for certain, that this show will get the ax at the end of this season, I almost feel that it kind of deserves a second look and a second season. There are worse shows out there.

Posted in Labels: comedy, NBC, TV Posted by Sornie at Thursday, March 17, 2011