Ms. Taco Checks In With The 'Girls' Of Fall Pt. 1

The buzz this fall is that female characters are taking center stage in a number of new TV shows, two of which even have 'girl' in the title. Three weeks in, much to my surprise, I'm hooked on both.

2 Broke Girls and New Girl, both recently gifted with full season pickups, follow girls on new ventures. 2 Broke Girls sees formerly rich and currently broke Caroline (Beth Behrs) taking a job as a waitress where she butts heads with Max (Kat Dennings). Both girls couldn't be more different, but by the end of the pilot they are sharing an apartment and have agreed to start a cupcake business together. Max has the baking chops and Caroline has the business smarts. The only catch is that they need about $250,000 for start-up costs. New Girl's Jess (Zooey Deschanel) is also starting fresh. After recently catching her boyfriend cheating, she ends up filling the fourth roommate spot with three single guys: Schmidt (Max Greenfield), Nick (Jake Johnson), and Winston (Lamorne Morris) (formerly Coach-more on this in a later post). Jess has a quirkiness about her that makes her unlike any girl they've met, but by the end of the pilot, Jess has settled in as their new roommate.

I don't think my initial thoughts on 2 Broke Girls were off the mark. I'm perplexed by some reviewers calling it the best new comedy of the season. The lines are flat, the supporting characters are stereotypical and one-dimensional, and many of the jokes are borderline offensive. However, something about the banter between Dennings and Behrs shines, and I'm hooked to watching them play off each other.

The show clearly needs a lot of work. The writing needs to improve. I don't know series co-creator Whitney Cummings at all, but having watched six seasons of other co-creator Michael Patrick King's Sex and the City, I'm surprised by the predictability of the jokes. One good point I read was that this show would have been better suited for HBO where it would have the freedom to be the show that it wants to be, and that may be the case. But the reality is that the show is on CBS and needs to make it work within those parameters. In my perfect world, the supporting characters would be squashed. For me they serve no real purpose except to perpetuate stereotypes that don't need to be perpetuated. However, considering the show is doing so well, I doubt they will consider making any major changes such as this. The question of offensiveness looms and is not as clear cut for me as my previous two points. Some of the show's jokes seem pretty clearly offensive, but in the spirit of South Park, if you are an equal opportunity offender are you really being offensive? Time will tell for me on this one, but considering the way I breezed through the first three episodes the other day, I'm thinking this show will be on my weekly to-do list. The show has already hinted at some deeper character development a la How I Met Your Mother, especially for Max. If they can hit the right notes on this the way Mother does, I will keep this one on my watch list for a long time.

Tune in tomorrow for my thoughts on New Girl!

Ms. Taco's First Impressions-Monday Nights

2 Broke Girls

Series Premiere September 19th-9:30pm-CBS

Regular time slot begins September 26^th-8:30 pm-CBS

I was really excited when I first heard of this series because one of the main stars is Kat Dennings (Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist, Thor), whose Twitter page I am in love with. I haven’t seen Dennings in much, but I liked her enough in Nick and Nora to be excited about her doing a network show. However, after watching the preview for this one, my interest waned a bit. Dennings has never struck me as a conventional comedic actress, yet I feel like she is stuck in such a conventional comedy filled with one note, predictable jokes. Though, I must admit that after a second viewing I did find myself almost chuckling at a few moments, and I am kind of interested to see how the friendship between the two leads develops. Overall, the presence of Dennings, my interest in seeing where they take the characters, and a pick by Entertainment Weekly as one of their top 5 new shows has me thinking I will check this one out as least for a few episodes.

Hart of Dixie

Series Premiere September 26^th-9 pm-The CW

Well, I’m a sucker for shows like these, and after the demise of Life Unexpected last year, I’m still craving a CW show that brings me back to old school WB. Based on the preview, I’m not sure this show can hold a candle to my WB favorites (Everwood, Gilmore Girls, Felicity) but it does seem to have some heart. The premise of a woman doctor coming to practice in a small town and not being accepted makes it feel like a present day Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (which I must admit I was a huge fan of as evidenced by the complete series set sitting on my DVD shelf). All of this combined with Rachel Bilson (The OC) and Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights) returning to starring TV roles makes this a show I definitely will be checking out.

Also new this fall is Terra Nova, premiering September 26th at 8pm on Fox, and The Playboy Club, premiering September 19th at 10pm on NBC. Neither of these shows struck a real interest in me from their previews, but they might be of interest to some of you!

Ms. Taco’s Returning Monday Night Favorite:

How I Met Your Mother