What I'm Watching: Better With You

Better With You: Season 1, Episode 4 “Better With Fighting” (B+)

There's something about this show, especially in the way the episodes are titled, that to me defines what the sitcom used to be all about, especially in the 1990s. Growing up with shows like “Friends” and “Will & Grace,” this show is a familiar, likeable series about relationships and families. I'm not a huge fan of the other laugh track-laden options like “How I Met Your Mother” and “The Big Bang Theory,” so this series is a welcome reminder that traditional situation comedies can still work. While it may not be entirely brilliant or revolutionary in its storytelling or writing, I still find each episode highly enjoyable (I begin these reviews like this mostly because I've read some very undeserved negative things about this show and much prefer it to more highly-praised, written-about shows like “Raising Hope” and “Outsourced”). It's amusing to see how differently these three couples fight and how unwillingly they take their own bad advice and put it into practice. I'm speaking mostly about Maddie's decision to strip naked at a restaurant to get Ben to stop yelling at her, and Joel and Vicky's decision to try fighting naked only to discover it isn't nearly as fun or fulfilling. As always, I find the interactions between Casey and Ben to be the funniest parts of the show, and Ben's continued fluster-ability works so well opposite Casey's laidback, often unintelligent attitude. I'm beginning to find all six of these characters truly endearing.