What I’m Watching: Apartment 23 (Season Premiere)

Apartment 23: Season 2, Episode 1 “A Reunion…” (B+)

I hadn’t really missed this show while it was off the air despite the fact that I did enjoy the first season. That may be because its content really isn’t tethered to reality, especially when it comes to the actions of its title character. That said, I did thoroughly enjoy this premiere, a light dose of fierce entertainment, with great character interaction all around. Two supporting characters, Luther and Mark, got superb showcases in this episode in brief scenes, most notably in Luther’s reaction to being shot with a tranquilizer gun and Mark’s short but spectacular scene encouraging June to pursue her latest dream. Chloe running around carrying a tranquilizer gun and shooting people was hilarious, and her boredom with James’ interest in doing a reunion show was a blast. Most notably, this episode did a good job of establishing James as a solid character, enhanced from his original status. Three familiar TV faces were also incorporated solidly into brief, very funny scenes. It was nice to see Busy Phillips, now of “Cougar Town,” and Mark-Paul Gosselaar, now of “Franklin and Bash,” as well as a freaked-out Frankie Muniz, who has been racing rather than acting as of late. Luther referring to Muniz as “Malcolm in the Middle” in his master screenplay was very amusing. June’s phone calls to her three extremely successful friends were quite embarrassing, but Chloe’s quick dismissal of their ultimate fates of failure was, as usual, largely nonsensical but strangely comforting and endearing. This is a great start to what should be a fun season.