Pilot Review: Friends with Better Lives

Friends with Better Lives (CBS)
Premiered March 31 at 9pm

It may be unfair to compare this show to “How I Met Your Mother,” but premiering it right after the series finale of that long-running show suggests that CBS wants people to associate the two. While I didn’t love the pilot of that show almost a decade ago, I can still appreciate the creativity of its concept and the likeability of its characters. I can’t say the same about this show, which utilizes its title to describe the way in which people in certain relationship statuses perceive the lives of those in different situations. Comparing the parallels of being single, engaged, divorced, and married is something hardly new to television, and, sticking true to its tendency to attempt laugh-track sitcoms in an age where they just aren’t as fresh or common, CBS has found another show that fits that bill here. In the cast, there are two actors who should be immediately recognizable to any TV viewer. Kevin Connolly starred as E on “Entourage” for eight years, and it’s weird to see him in a laugh track context since he was never making such forced jokes. It makes more sense to see James Van Der Beek in this kind of show, though he too was considerably better and more well-suited to his last TV role, on “Apartment 23” as a version of himself. It’s a pretty dry performance, but Zoe Lister Jones, who I had the pleasure of interviewing a few years ago at a Starbucks when she was starring in “Breaking Upwards,” is the only female member of the supporting cast who stands out in any way. This show lacks much creative energy, and instead seems intent on recycling every convention in the book.

How will it work as a series? Each of these sets of people will encounter diverse difficulties along the way, and the intersection of them is what’s supposed to make this show funny. I have some doubts about that, especially considering the delivery of most of the jokes in the premiere, but dating and marriage humor knows no bounds, so this show could feasibly go on forever if someone decided it should.
How long will it last? It’s hard to tell. The ratings were decent, obviously not as high as the series finale of “How I Met Your Mother,” but CBS demands big numbers to keep its show on the air. I don’t see this as the next “2 Broke Girls” or “Two and a Half Men.” I think its initial thirteen episode will be it.

Pilot grade: D