Accidentally on Purpose (CBS)
Flat, uninspired joke writing.

Community (NBC)
Gets one more chance.

Cougar Town (ABC)
Fast-paced. Heavy-handed. Some laughs.

Eastwick (ABC)
Seen movie? Like that.

Flash Forward (ABC)
Season’s best new drama

Glee (FOX)
Overhyped cheese, but fun.

The Good Wife (CBS)
Lawyer premise executed well.

Modern Family (ABC)
Season’s best new comedy

Vampire Diaries (CW)
Teen teen teen blech.

I won’t waste your time or mine.  I only watched fifteen minutes, and I haven’t seen all the new shows yet, but I’m ready to declare Knight Rider the worst new show of the season.

• KITT is now evidentally a Transformer.  He literally transforms from a car into a truck at one point (though not for any particular reason.)  Did you see the Transformers movie?  Knight Rider looks like it will have about that level of substance.
• In the overblown command center, one of the perfectly multi-ethnic beautiful people beams, “This just got interesting!”  Evidently, she’s quite pleased that her friends are about to be destroyed by a heat-seeking missile.
• The heroine has a “reason” to strip out of her cocktail dress before the end of act one.  She was still in bra and panties when I gave up on watching.
• The technology strains believability so incredibly far that “cartoon” is not an apt analogy.  The original Knight Rider may have been aimed at twelve-year-old boys.  But the average eight-year old watching this newest incarnation will stand up and yell, “Shyeah! Like THAT could ever happen!”

Sitcoms come in two general flavors: the workplace sitcom, and the family sitcom.  Cheers and Cosby.  30 Rock and Leave It to Beaver.  A recent trend among family sitcoms is the acknowledgment that family structure can be complex in our modern day, too.  Gary Unmarried is an example, featuring Jay Mohr as a newly divorcing father of two attempting to begin a dating life with a client, who has family complexities of her own.

Long story short, it’s a solid B-grade sitcom.  Nothing amazing, but not a waste of your time.  Jay Mohr, as always, delivers the needed charm.  The character quirks are (more than) defined, and the script offers a few solid laughs without being overly joke-y.

Best aspect: The cast.  Flat jokes aren’t oversold.  Characters feel full, even where they are 2-D in the script.  Of course, give some credit to legendary sitcom director James Burrows for his involvement (although he didn’t direct this particular episode.)

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Good enough. Not good, but good enough.

Are you the kind of viewer who expects a sitcom to deliver a little mindlessness at the end of a long day? Are you the kind of viewer who thinks Arrested Development or 30 Rock asks too much from you? If your TV is on CBS on Mondays at 9:30, you just watched Two and a Half Men, so the answer is very likely yes. If that’s your style, Worst Week will certainly be good enough for you.

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Privileged is the story of Megan Smith, a journalist struggling because she wants to do REAL journalism instead of fluff. (Yes, we’ve seen that before. It won’t be the last overused story element.) Her boss essentially fires her, but offers to set her up with another employment opportunity, presumably interviewing or writing for an uber-wealthy foundation chairwoman, played by Anne Archer. Archer’s character has two granddaughters, spoiled heiresses. (Even the show points out how often we’ve seen that before.) Grandma offers Megan a super-plush arrangement–room, board, a sweet car, and her days free to pursue her writing—if Megan will tutor the grandkids in the evenings. There’s some other stuff with a down-to-earth prince charming, an estranged sister, etc., but I don’t want to make it sound too much more complex than it is.

Perhaps its because I pay the bills as a professional yuppie larva trainer myself that I connected a bit with this show. Yes, it’s light fare. Lite, even. But, hey, while Privileged may be painting in archetypical characters, it promises to focus on the relationships between those archetypical characters in a worthwhile way. If this is your type of show, Privileged is at least a solid entry in its genre.

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