new show review: Worst Week
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.
The show is about Sam, an every guy with very bad luck. He has impregnated his girlfriend, and tonight they plan to tell her parents, who, by the way, hate Sam. And then bad stuff happens, and then more bad stuff happens, and then it gets more complicated until it’s over.
Inspired by a British show, one can see Worst Week‘s drawing room farce roots showing. In general, though, the escalating chain of complication fails to seem clever, original, or witty. If they get that part right, they’ll have a strong foundation upon which to drape those flourishes. Ironically, the best place to look for inspiration would be Arrested Development—one of those shows that expects you to pay attention.
Best aspect: It’s potential.
Worst aspect: Central plot point involving pee.
Verdict: I won’t turn it off if it comes on. But I’m not adding it to my DVR.
Odds of success: Strangely, I think I have to pin Worst Week’s success on the performance of Gary Unmarried on Wednesday. If that show makes a successful pair with New Adventures of Old Christine, CBS will have two nights that feature sitcoms. That will mean Mondays at 9:30 will need a slot-filler. And, as I mentioned, Worst Week is good enough. If, however, one or the other of the shows fails to deliver the ratings, look for the best four or five shows to get collapsed back into Mondays.
Xanthe Neal on 
jane on