It's boring, it's dated, it's entirely unoriginal, it always goes for the easy laugh, it always fails at getting the easy laugh (despite what the overused laugh track might try to make you believe), none of the characters are even mildly intriguing, none of the characters are even mildly believable, all of the characters are more than mildly grating, the title is tacky and, most importantly, it's not yet available on Hulu, which is just a hassle.
OK. Deep breath. Just needed to get that off my chest, because 30 minutes of television have rarely felt like such a waste of time.
The premise of the pilot is relatively straightforward. A recently divorced single-mom/lawyer (Milano) discovers that her ex-husband is getting married. She panics and her three single friends two guys and her sister convince her to try and start dating again. Antics ensue.
In theory, nothing about this set-up is especially offensive. Moreover, Milano, who I always enjoyed during her days on "Charmed," has a sort of innate likeability. Even though her character doesn't seem to have any defining characteristics, she comes across as pleasant. In fact, her date, in which she tries to seem young by telling the man that her 16-year-old son was her ex-husband, was the best part of the show.
Unfortunately, that's not saying much. As I alluded to in my little rant, nothing about the show felt even slightly fresh. Scenes of the four main characters making bad jokes in the coffee house (at one point the phrase "mansicle" was used sans irony) could have come from any generic '90s sitcom.
Sub-plots involving the lesser characters were similarly unoriginal and contrived. In one, a character began dating a woman who turned out to love getting spanked. Apparently he hated Darth Vader, so in order to get up the anger to play rough, he needed to hear Vader-style breathing through the phone. It was even worse on screen than it sounds reading it. I suppose other shows have successfully pulled off weirder scenarios, but here, the gag fell completely flat. Worse still, this and other secondary storylines took up so much of the half hour that we barely got to see Milano, the only character I half care about.
Initially, I had been hoping for good things from this show. It's never a good sign when a show premieres in April, but ABC placed it directly after "Dancing With The Stars" perhaps the best time slot on television which indicated to me that they had confidence in the show.
Plus, I love lady-comedy as much as anyone, and three of my top five sitcoms currently on TV ("Parks and Recreation," "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and "30 Rock") are built around female stars. Thus, when Milano stated in a recent interview with entertainment blog "The Flickcast" that she was initially attracted to the show after being "struck at how funny the female characters were written," I figured I would give it a chance.
Milano lied. Her character is friendly but unremarkable, her sister is shrill and manic but neither is funny.
Although this show follows the traditional sitcom rules much more closely than "Parks" and "30 Rock," "Christine" shows that it is quite possible to be hilarious and relevant even with a laugh track. In that show, Christine is selfish, an alcoholic and all too comfortable around her brother, but at least Christine has quirks and personality that make you want to watch her. I think "Challenged" could use that show as an example of how to write for an intriguing female star that the audience can actually invest in.
In conclusion: do not, under any circumstances, watch this show. At times, it felt as if none of the writers were even trying. And after about 10 minutes, I found myself watching the clock and counting down the minutes until the end.
What drives me crazy is that ABC executives will likely keep this show in a slot that could be used for the infinitely better, but poorly rated, "Better Off Ted." But with its "Dancing With The Stars" lead-in helping it earn over 11 million viewers Monday night, "Romantically Challenged" probably isn't going anywhere for a while. Milano and TV viewers both deserve better.
