Admittedly, the first time I saw a promo for ABC’s Happy Endings, I was nonplussed, to put it mildly. As a long-standing fan of Fox’s 24, my memories of Elisha Cuthbert were a shade, well, terrible. Throughout her run on the show as star Keifer Sutherland’s daughter, she seemed an uneven performer whose character did a lot more to get in the way than it ever did to help move stories along.
By the time Happy Endings was through it’s first season, I had managed to avoid the show completely, save for risking ocular injury at the trailers that popped up during Modern Family. Then, something weird happened. ABC Family ran a marathon of the first season, and once I overcame my own biases against Ms. Cuthbert, I came to realize-Hey, this show is actually rather amusing.
As we approach the middle of the television season and the cancellation vultures start to circle, Endings continues to struggle to hold the the monster audience garnered by Modern Family, it’s lead-in. This isn’t terribly surprising, or even that disappointing, considering MF’s rather hefty ratings. However, it begs the question-why aren’t more folks tuning in? Better yet, why should you, the discerning Crasstalker, do so?
Why, I’m glad that you asked. Let me give you a reason. Better yet, make it five.
1) Surprise! It’s doesn’t actually star Elisha Cuthbert.
When ABC was initially rolling the show out, Cuthbert was the most likely face to market the show behind. After all, she was on an Emmy-winning show for multiple seasons, even if her most famous moment on that show involved her getting caught in an animal trap and stalked by a mountain lion. At the core, this is an ensemble comedy, and it’s quite the ensemble indeed. Three of the six-Eliza Coupe (Jane), Casey Wilson (Penny) and Adam Pally (Max) are alums of the Upright Citizens Brigade. Damon Wayans Jr. (Brad) is, well, the son of Damon Wayans, and seemingly, a reasonably gifted comedic actor. Zachary Knighton (Dave) and Cuthbert (Alex) round out the cast, and the interplay between the group is extremely good, and finding it’s groove in the second season:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3NUSHhg3bY&feature=related
2) There’s no relationship-y ‘will they or won’t they’ junk.
You know what sucked about Friends? You know, besides every scene involving David Schwimmer? All the Ross and Rachel crap. I know when I turn on a sitcom, I totally want a little soap opera action. Happy Endings solved for that problem early on. There’s already one married couple (Brad and Jane), and they cleared out the other potential couple in the series’ premiere episode. It made for a pretty awkward pilot, but then, show me a pilot that isn’t crap on some level. Fortunately, 30+ episodes in, it seems like the writers are committed to keeping these two apart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5sCIAzYGqc
3) A gay character who isn’t such a cliche´ for once.
Adam Pally’s character, Max, is the least stereotypically gay man on TV it seems. After way too many years of seeing the gays picked out by Bravo and E!, I’m just truly heartened to see a gay man on TV who reminds me of my gay friends in real life. He drinks beer, he’s lazy, and dresses like a slob 50% of the time. In other words, he’s not very good at playing straight, either.
4) Penny Hartz
To give you an idea of what Penny’s character is like, understand this: Megan Mullally guests as her mother. She universally veers off into the ridiculous in search of the right guy, but it’s always done in a silly, non-desperate way. She’s overdramatic, crude, and sometimes seemingly oblivious to how others might perceive her. In other words, she’s perfect:
5) They don’t take themselves too seriously
This seems like it should be a given in sitcoms, but sadly, isn’t always the case. On Endings, though, they seem to embrace the idea that sometimes your characters have to get into absurd situations to get a laugh. Yet, the writers pull this off without getting all Community-style weird about it. They aren’t afraid to slip in the pop culture references or occasional cut-scene, without getting into Family Guy or Scrubs overkill with it. In other words, they embrace that many of the devices used (a group of friends, big city, exes as friends, etc) aren’t new, but simply refined and spread evenly throughout the series. Add in the fact that the biggest ‘name’ in the series will roll with a joke at the expense of her former TV life, and it’s a winning formula:
Happy Endings airs Wednesdays at 9:30PM Eastern on ABC
Pic via
