Pilot Thoughts: 2 Broke Girls & The Playboy Club

From the pilots I've seen so far, 2 Broke Girls is the best of the bunch. Granted many more new shows are premiering this week and the shows I've already seen aren't exactly masterpieces, but all of those shouldn't take away the pleasant surprise this show gave me. For one, I am a fan of Kat Dennings and in the show, as Max, she's pretty much playing Kat Dennings. I was already sold on that aspect when I first heard about the show. But the show has two leads and I knew that if I didn't end up liking Beth Behrs or her character Caroline or if the chemistry between the two leads just wasn't there, then the show would quickly be disposable. Thankfully that didn't happen and in a space of 23 minutes, we got to really sympathize with and see Caroline as a three dimensional character. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this odd couple relationship develops. My one complaint about the show is the terrible supporting characters in the show with the exception of the horse and Noah Mills' abs. The rest are drawn just a tad too broadly and yet were also largely forgettable. Not a good combination. B/B+


Based on its premiere ratings, The Playboy Club is not meant for this world and I'm not exactly crying over it. The show revolves around the lives of the people who work at the Chicago-set Playboy Club back in the 1960s aka men in suits and women in bunny costumes. Comparisons to the better realized Mad Men are inevitable, but it's just not fair to this show despite making us want to believe that Eddie Cibrian, as pretty as he is, has the charisma that could hold a show like this the way Jon Hamm can. His character, Nick Dalton, and the whole mob storyline is my least favorite aspect about the pilot. I was much more interested in what the various bunnies were up to especially Laura Benanti who plays the Mother Bunny Carol-Lynne who seem to have the men wrapped around her fingers and Leah Renee Cudmore who plays Alice who is harboring many secrets underneath her cutesy and ditzy facade. Amber Heard plays the lead female Maureen and she's actually not bad considering what she is being saddled with (aka Nick Dalton and the whole mob storyline). It's telling that all of my favorite scenes with her is when she's interacting with the other female cast members. The show isn't as bad as I feared, but it's definitely not a must-see for me unless the surprise gay twist ramps up and/or the Bunnies take over. C+