Well, if you didn’t know by now, quirky, uninhibited, “it” girls are the next best thing on television since Elaine Benes did her legendary spastic jig in a pantsuit. Yes, the lady who isn’t afraid to be smart and sassy, or to put it in more robust terms, a true “bitch” unapologetically, or a downright dweeby dork without fear of exposure — this is the 2012 female lead on television, and the women of Don’t Trust the B—- in Apt 23 are no exception.
We meet goody-goody, June (Dreama Walker), a fresh-faced rube from Indiana who’s landed in the hardened, cultural smorgasbord of Manhattan, complete with her curling blonde locks, and unsuspecting mischievous twitch of her mouth — she’s gonna make it after all! Um-hmm, yes, she starts out as a cliché. She’s the newbie in town, and the would-be easy mark for Chloe (Krysten Ritter) her soon to be roommate and all around bad girl in fantabulous clothes. June comes to town with nothing more than dreams of making it big in business in a place, that well, is now known for Madoff scandals, golden parachutes, and bank bailouts. Which is exactly where she finds herself on her first day of work, demonstrated by the copious shredding and looting going on at her brand new job. June walks in to find her co-workers stealing office printers as the company president is arrested for embezzlement, or insider trading, or whatever chic thing tycoons were arrested for that week. Shortly after she’s jobless, homeless, and without friends.
Well not entirely, later we find her now former office mentor who found a job within hours as a barista at a coffee shop called It’s Just Beans, has a job for her. Oh, the things a MBA will get you. Mentor Mark (Eric Andre) is now part friend, part comedic statement about layoffs in the big city, and so it is writ, another show with significant scenes playing out in a coffee shop.
June, in need of a roommate, now meets Chloe, mean girl and rent hustler, who has an apartment full of odds and ends and a social life that’s complete with a life-sized James Van Der Beek to call her own. VDB is her best friend as he plays himself amongst a litany of Dawson’s Creek jokes. [You’re not ten minutes into the premiere before hearing Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Want to Wait.”] Could the Dawson’s Creek thing get stale after awhile? Possibly. But if the show does it right, it could be a long lasting gag. [A Pacey appearance is just about mandatory, yes? Yes.] If you think about it, the jokes really write themselves, which is part of the fun of the show. As evidenced by none other than the Dawson Crying Meme, we know how much of an angst-ridden, wholly pap-filled machine the show was, so making more than a bit of fun at its expense, especially with Van Der Beek leading the charge, is what you expect from the enterprising millennial television maker who finds the 1990’s ripe for the plucking, along with being a fun way for Van Der Beek to finally capitalize off of his Gif Wall meme success that basically got him this acting gig.
Chloe and Van Der Beek are like the evil king and queen at the prom. We get the impression that not much is over the limit of decency or bitchery for the two. So when Chloe decides to continue her “get rent and then terrorize” scheme on unsuspecting June, she’s rather impressed when the Indiana Hoosier Hick fights back and gives her a taste of her own medicine. And then in a flash of depravity, and lack of concern for others outside their own little world, a begrudging friendship is born.
The Good:
Krysten Ritter was born to play the part of Chloe. She’s just the kind of salty & sweet mix that translates well, and is remarkably like some sort of antithetical, bizarro Zooey Deschanel. Even when doing something decidedly horrible and obnoxious like getting a ten year-old drunk to find out information, or making June pay to unknowingly get her drugs back, all is done with such charm and aplomb that it’s hard to do much but shake your head and see what nutty thing she’ll come up with next. She’s utterly likable in her penchant for selfish melodrama, debauchery and all around aptitude for shameless cavorting. What we sense is that the show will use this diabolical-lady theme to their advantage, but they’ll also toy with giving her a heart, yet keep reminding us that Chloe is a “B” so don’t expect too much in the way of hearts and flowers on a consistent basis.
Taking a cue from other shows this season,New Girl in particular, and 2 Broke Girls to a lesser extent, television has found a winning combination in creating female characters that break molds and who say and do things that may in the past have been considered too risqué or too counter culture for most mainstream audiences. It’s a good thing that television creators have finally worked their way around to acknowledging that women are diverse, that they can think outside of the typical sitcom box, and that women on television should be able to say the things that their male counterparts would consider, and possibly beyond. Essentially one of the best things about many of these shows is the rise of personality in the sitcom lady. She’s not just “the mother” or “the girlfriend.” Many of these women are single or not, happy or contrite, satisfied or yearning, but whatever they are, they are less and less the typical static characters or filler for script pages.
The Bad:
There’s a slight cheese factor that the show is trying to hide by being overall funny and irreverent. It could be that we’re on “funny show” overload, with the recent ending of Happy Endings and the lead in from Modern Family, so it does feel a bit like ABC is trying to tell us, “See, see, you like everything we do! Isn’t it funny?! ISN’T IT??!!” but the thing about ABC is that they really do like a certain style, and that style can be more than a little similar from one show to the next. It’s somewhere in the snappy one-liners, and prescient knowledge that all jokes will be funny, even if they’re not. Don’t Trust the B—- in Apt 23 has a bit of this arrogance, and that’s where some of the cheese seeps in. New Girl, Fox’s offering, and ABC’s own Happy Endings are able to handle the balance this better, whereas NBC’s Whitney isn’t nearly as successful. Whitney, among some other issues, suffers from a very weak ensemble cast, so this is an area where Don’t Trust the B—- in Apt 23 needs to focus on — building up those supporting characters so Ritter isn’t doing all the heavy lifting week to week.
Prediction:
The show has a lot of potential. The writing is just the kind of stuff that critics like, and the kind of next-day water cooler commentary that has become a staple for really good sitcoms. You know, the subtle joke that plays back in the minds of audiences moments after it was told? Yeah, this is the good stuff. With a bit more story development, character personality emergence, and without too much fuss — which one could say is hinted at by the overworked title of the show — and this could be a nice little hit for ABC. With the solid 7 million viewers who tuned in last night, “B” is off to a very good start.
