What I’m Watching: Abby’s

Abby’s: Season 1, Episode 4 “Book Club” (B)

This show is pretty formulaic and predictable, but I’m still enjoying it. It didn’t surprise me at all that even Beth didn’t read the book that she had picked for the book club, and instead they’d just be discussing parts of the trailer that she managed to watch. I thought I recognized Tracie Thoms from “Rent” as Emily, though her age confused me – it turns out that she’s only fifteen years younger than Neil Flynn, who plays Fred. It was entertaining to watch as Fred tried to prove that he could handle change when he was totally resistant to everything they were trying to do to test him. Bringing Emily to the bar so that they could enjoy the two-for-one steaks he bought at Vons was hardly romantic, and the sides that he presented after some encouragement from the others weren’t much of an improvement. It was obvious that he and Emily were just putting on an act about moving in together so quickly, but it was made fun by the fact that it was all to get Abby to admit that she was wrong. I like that James tried to learn Spanish to impress someone who would have been happy to date him if her past with Angry Chris hadn’t scared him away immediately. Bill being attacked for ruining all hypothetical games was funny, and I like that he pushed back against constantly being told that it wasn’t the time. He’s a punching bag, but he’s not going to be relegated to that status without putting up a fight.