What's it about?
Based on the book Good Christian Bitches, GCB is a funny, sassy and heartwarming drama that begs the question: Can you go back home to a place where no one seems to have grown up? When former mean girls Amanda Vaughn moves back to Dallas 18 years after high school, former unpopular teen-turned-diva-of-Dallas Carlene Cockburn gets a major dose of PTSD. To top it off, Amanda's living across the street from the Cockburns with her feisty mother Gigi Stopper! Amanda has changed for the morally better but Carlene and her other victims -- the GCBs -- have their doubts. The GCBs now rule the school that is Dallas society and are about to settle the score with Amanda Vaughn.
You should watch if...
• you are looking for a new show to soften the blow of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES going off the air after eight seasons.
• you enjoy some good religious hypocrisy mixed in with your bitingly sassy humor.
• you could watch Kristin Chenoweth read the Yellow Pages and still find her endlessly entertaining.
So, how was it?
Despite having the most unfortunate title in recent memory (or, at least since last year's punctuation-heavy, similarly-censored $H*! MY DAD SAYS), the pilot was a surprising delight to watch. I was mostly interested in the show as a fan of Kristin Chenoweth in everything from YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN and WICKED to her guest role on GLEE and her stint on the short-lived but amazing PUSHING DAISIES. Thankfully, she has a found a show that can keep up with her acerbic comedic style.
Kristin Chenoweth shines as Carlene, the leader of the GCBs and the one most desperate to see former-rival Amanda get her comeuppance. But the rest of the GCBs are played by equally well-cast, adept comediennes: Miriam Shor (SWINGTOWN, DAMAGES) is Cricket, about whom Amanda once spread a malicious herpes-related rumor, and is now a high-powered CEO with a dashingly-good-looking husband who happens to be a harboring a secret (hint: it involves his equally good-looking ranch foreman); Jennifer Aspen (PARTY OF FIVE, GLEE) is Sharon, the insecure former-beauty-queen-turned-binge-eater whose husband still harbors a flame for Amanda; and Marisol Nichols (24) is Heather, the perpetually-single real estate agent, who is the first to forgive the reformed Amanda and help her navigate the treacherous waters around the other GCBs.
So far the biggest flaw of the show is Leslie Bibb as Amanda, but that's not necessarily entirely her fault. She has been given the absolutely thankless job of playing the straight (wo)man surrounded by a cast of eccentric supporting characters, each crazier than the last -- it's next to impossible to not seem flat when going toe-to-toe with the likes of Kristin Chenoweth.
I found the premise of the show itself to be somewhat intriguing -- that of a former-mean-girl-turned-caring-mother returning to her hometown to reap what she sowed in high school from an antagonistic clique of big-haired divas. It would have been just as easy to build a show around the exact opposite concept -- that of a group of close friends once terrorized by a mean girl in high school who must band together and cope with her sudden return to their neighborhood. But GCB is asking us to sympathize with Amanda, while casting Carlene and her cohorts as the villains. At this point, I'm kind of skeptical of Amanda as a protagonist -- her turnaround seems too complete and unexplained as of yet. I wish we had seen shades of the mean girl she used to be, so we could better understand why Carlene hates her so much. Hopefully as the season goes on, we will start to see meaner shades in Amanda and friendlier shades in Carlene, just to make their characters more complex and their story more interesting. I'd prefer to feel conflicted about who in this story I'm supposed to feel sorry for, rather than being told I should be feeling sorry for Amanda immediately after being told about all the horrible things she did as a teenager.
Fortunately, the one-liners were flying fast and quick in this first hour (along with big hats, big cars and big hair). ABC is billing GCB as a replacement for DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, which has long been a staple of their network, but at least thus far, GCB is taking itself far less seriously, which can only be a good thing. With no new neighbor harboring a deep, dark and contrived secret, there's no heavy drama to bog down the zippy, sarcastic humor. I hope the show manages to maintain its quick wit and its superb combination of hypocrisy and optimism without getting mired in the soap-opera-machinations that eventually plagued the ladies of Wisteria Lane.
Rating:
*** Solid. I'm interested and will definitely keep watching.
This could be a new guilty pleasure for my Sunday evenings -- I am looking forward to seeing more delicious, double-entendre-laden, bible-quoting interactions between Carlene, Cricket, Sharon, Heather and Amanda. The pilot informs us that "Hell hath no fury like a woman you scorned in high school." I'm excited to witness more of that fury be unleashed in the weeks to come.
What about you, Fellow Addicts? Were you amused by the GCBs and their hypocritical antics? Or was the über-Texas setting too Texas-y for you to stomach? Vote in the poll below and then hit the comments!
(For the complete rundown of when all the new shows are premiering, check out my 2012 Midseason TV Preview.)
No comments:
Post a Comment