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Trophy Wife has a nice cast but no part of it was funny and its pacing frankly gave me a headache. Not really sure why this had such good buzz

I usually avoid anything with Ackerman in it. I don't have anything against her per se, but I find most of the things she appears in to be pretty unbearable.

Ahem...?

Childrens Hospital is terrifically funny and I have no complaints about Malin Akerman's work in it but Erinn Hayes and Lake Bell run large circles around her on a regular basis

cdnchris wrote:I usually avoid anything with Ackerman in it. I don't have anything against her per se, but I find most of the things she appears in to be pretty unbearable.

More evidence that I might just be a clone of cdnchris (though I guess I'm the "mocha" edition) ... but I actually didn't mind this pilot. Perhaps that's because they don't really rely that heavily on Akerman's performance to carry the entire show, at least as much as I thought they would. Instead they wisely surround her with some fairly talented actors. Maybe it's also because it's fairly polished for a pilot episode, which are usually grisly for half-hour comedies. I can see how the break-neck pacing in the pilot might be annoying, but it did have a lot of material to cover to set-up the show's basic premise and introduce its rather large cast (I predict that either the best-party-girl-friend or the 2nd-ex-wife are eventually written off the show to make more room for the central cast).

Having said that, I have a feeling that ABC is hoping this is basically a variation of Modern Family and that means any of the mild risks they took in the pilot (hinted under-aged drinking, age vs sexuality, etc.) are likely to disappear over the long-term in favor of playing it pretty safe throughout the rest of the season. I have no real evidence to back up that claim, but I just get the sense that the show will likely end up much more bland over time.

I'm sure most producers would prefer it if shows got more bland and safe as time went by. Fortunately that doesn't happen every time.