Collegiate Times

“2 Broke Girls” — 

Monday, Sept. 19 at 8:30 p.m.

“Two Broke Girls” is just as bad and suggestive as it sounds.

The show, as the name implies, is a comedy about two broke girls struggling to make a living as waitresses at a diner. Max is the tough chick — bossy and no-nonsense — yet still likeable and relatively amusing. Caroline is the uppity socialite recently turned poor girl after daddy dearest had a run-in with the law.

While science has shown that opposites attract, the opposing protagonists of this show just repel the audience. The “humor,” if you can call it that, is incredibly lewd. Sure, dirty jokes can be funny, but they go overboard in “Two Broke Girls.” Half of the lines uttered are just begging to be followed with “that’s what she said.” And that’s not a compliment.

Not only is the dialogue a bit crude, but it’s also incredibly trite. The jokes are too easy. There’s nothing clever or creative about the writing. You can tell exactly where a joke is going halfway through someone’s line. Predictability certainly doesn’t make for an entertaining show.

The future for the show seems pretty grim. Then again, CBS did renew “Mike & Molly,” so perhaps there’s still hope for “Two Broke Girls.”

2 stars out of 5

“New Girl” – 

Tuesday, Sept. 20 at 9 p.m.

The always-quirky Zooey Deschanel doesn’t disappoint at all in this punchy half-hour comedy.

Deschanel’s character, Jess, is the “new girl” that decides to move in with three single guys after suffering from a miserable breakup. She mopes around their apartment and watches “Dirty Dancing” six to seven times a day. When not in “wallow-in-self-pity mode,” she’s bursting out into song about anything and everything, much to the horror of her new roommates. What have they gotten themselves
into?

“Did you just make up a theme song about yourself?” one of the roommates asks Jess after one of her melodic outbursts. Indeed she did, and if the pilot was any indication, she’ll keep singing for quite awhile. While Deschanel steals the show, the supporting cast is great — acting as her collective wingmen.

I’ll definitely be tuning in again to see the “New Girl” who claims “pink wine makes me slutty.” Besides, if Deschanel can make even “The Happening” watchable, just imagine what she can do for this show.

4.5 stars out of 5

“Whitney” – 

Thursday, Sept. 22 at 9:30 p.m.

Much like NBC’s “Free Agents,” “Whitney” is an imperfect comedy that nonetheless shows promise. There are gems hidden in it that if excavated, could really bring success.

Whitney Cummings stars as the title character that’s eccentric, clumsy, awkward and altogether hilarious. She and Alex, her boyfriend of three years, are a happily unmarried couple, although their friends would like to hear wedding bells in the
future.

The real comedy is that they already do seem married. They live together, they witness each other’s barbaric bathroom routines and their love life is pretty stagnant. That last part leads to a very amusing scene where Whitney tries to spice things up with a nurse-patient role play. Unfortunately, it ends up in the hospital, and no, that’s not code for anything. Alex gets a concussion, and it’s not from their roughhousing.

While the leads provide an entertaining look into unmarried “bliss,” the supporting cast simply fails to deliver. Whitney’s friends are odd, but not in a good way. Their quality of acting is low and the delivery of their lines seems much too contrived. A few of her friends could be fine-tuned a bit, but others just need to be tossed out.

Even with a few half-baked characters, “Whitney” still has great potential to be an enduring series. I’ll be sure to give it a few more chances to improve.

3 stars out of 5

“Pan Am” – 

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A version of this article appeared in the Sep 27 issue of the Collegiate Times.