Round Two: How to Live with Your Parents

How to Live with Your Parents: Season 1, Episode 2 “How to Get Off the Couch” (C)

I want to like this show, but it’s difficult when it’s treading such familiar ground in a less than creative manner. Sarah Chalke’s level of focused energy will never be matched, and, in theory, Polly is a good character, but the show around her is actually quite boring. After a quick montage of her many social activism projects from young adulthood, Polly petered out after suffering a fall during her run. It wasn’t difficult to guess that she was faking her injury, and her legitimizing her relationship with Julian ensures that he’ll be around for some time to come, which, shoeless recommendations aside, is probably an unproductive idea for the show. While he’s grumpy, it’s easy to like Max, but his act is getting old, as is Elaine’s. In theory the concept of Elaine telling her granddaughter’s class all about where they were before they were born might be funny, but it just didn’t work here. Max and Elaine aren’t made out to be very intelligent, which is fine, yet they don’t possess many other redeeming qualities other than extreme laziness. As a devoted watcher of many shows on a weekly basis, I’m pretty sure that this isn’t one which I’ll need to keep up with. I’m tempted to give it another chance, but, thus far, the show has such a limited scope that I doubt that there are brilliant new characters just waiting to help improve the show in the coming episodes. Not all sitcoms can be winners, I suppose.