Mike & Molly Starts Tonight: Will You Watch?
Just a quick post to remind everyone that Mike & Molly begins tonight, and the reviews are coming in.
Linda Holmes at NPR:
It has a lot of dumb jokes and broad (har har) portrayals, and everyone in the writers’ room should do 20 laps for the moment where two fat guys don’t know enough not to wedge themselves into a stairwell (a joke worthy of Saved By The Bell) and 25 more for a busted-furniture joke.
That stuff absolutely has to stop if the show is going to improve, both because it’s embarrassingly lazy and because it’s less observant about weight issues than some other nice moments in the opener. See, a guy like Mike is bound to be acutely aware of himself and is highly unlikely to cavalierly lean on tables. That’s not a “don’t make fun” killjoy thing; that’s a character thing. The cheap visuals are hard to resist, of course, but they must be resisted when they interfere with what is otherwise, surprisingly enough, a pretty human picture of these two people.
Dan Fienberg (co-signed by Alan Sepinwall) at Hitfix:
There are two different shows at war in the pilot for “Mike & Molly.”
One is a surprisingly sensitive, occasionally funny character study about two people who have had struggles in their lives, but now have maybe found a life partner. It’s not that you ever forget that the characters in this version of the story are overweight. No, the majority of the punchlines are still girth-based, but the gags rarely seem malicious and the tone of the comedy stems from welcome and familiar interaction with friends and loved ones. That is to say that there are definitely fat jokes, but they’re sheltered within a safe space.
In this show, Gardell and McCarthy are excellent…
In [the other] version of “Mike & Molly,” our female lead is introduced comically and frantically and somewhat humiliatingly working out to the blaring strains of “Brick House.” That version has one table destroyed and another upended by Mike’s inconvenient heft. That version has a ridiculous scene in which two Overeaters Anonymous members literally get stuck in a stairwell because they’re walking side-by-side.
I think that there’s less of this “Mike & Molly” than there is of the good version, but this is the version that the studio audience (sweetened laugh track) seems to most enjoy and this is the version that probably will stand out as the most memorable. This is the version about two fat people, who happen to be in love. This is the version that’s laughing at its main characters and not with them.
Feinberg also adds this:
If you have a comedy about any group of people who aren’t represented extensively on television, you probably don’t want to be laughing *at* them. Beyond just being smug and insufferable, you’re pigeon-holding the totality of a group’s representation down to being the subject for mockery. It’s here that one sadly needs to point out that in TV comedy, just about anybody who isn’t pretty, thin, white and middle-to-upper class is under represented. We’ve advanced a tiny bit from the days where the cast of “Friends” could wander around New York City for over a decade and meet roughly two people who didn’t look exactly like them, but not very far.
It’s great that the critics seem to be calling the show out on its fatism, and pointing towards some of the show’s possibilities for a positive representation of fat people. So will you be watching it? (I, sadly, will be working tonight and will miss both it and How I Met Your Mother.) If so, come back and let us know what you think!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Fat Positive, Fatism, Mike & Molly, Tidbit, TV
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I plan to give it a shot. I’ve read two decent reviews of it today, and Chuck Lorre shows generally improve after their pilots, so I see this one getting better.
Sucked
Thankfully and perhaps ironically, I will be at the gym so I will miss the show. Wasn’t planning on watching it anyway, but now I have an extra-special, won’t-be-home excuse. I saw a clip somewhere that showed some of the oh-so-hilarious fat jokes and it just made me feel stabby. I don’t mind being a down-the-road viewer if the show proves to be more than one great big (pun intended) guffaw at us fat folk. /bitter
I stopped watching “How I met your mother” early on because the episodes I had the opportunity to watch were pretty fat hating. I, of course, watch shows that are fat hating (hello No Reservations!), but I can only handle so many of them. I’m going to give M&M a chance. Chuck Lorre isn’t so good at depicting women, or at least he hasn’t been until later seasons in the shows that I’ve seen, but I still like them. I don’t love them though.
Ah, I just looked up Chuck Lorre to find out more about him, and it turns out before BBT and 2 1/2 men he did create/work on shows with strong female characters. My bad. I just know BBT started with Penny as this object, and then later on she became a person.
I’m so conflicted on this one.
I watched the preview and saw bits that made me nod and say – yep, I have family that does things like that & a funny part here and there. But, there were also parts that had me wondering if I was going to be pissed off if I watched the show.
I need another TV show to watch like a hole in the head, but was intrigued. There are obvious things that weren’t thought out completely – or they “didn’t get it” – or that is the way they meant it and it’s offensive to me….
The clip showed her sister being the TOTAL opposite of her – rail thin…making her weight even MORE visable (if that makes sense).
I love to laugh!
I can even laugh at things that have to do with me being overweight, but some things aren’t funny – when shows make overweight people seem stupid or poke fun.
Not cool.
I thought it was cute. The majority of the fat jokes come at the male lead’s expense, and will wear thin fast, so hopefully the writing will improve. Melissa McCarthy was adorable, a strong woman who loves herself, is attracted to Mike and is going for it. Not perfect, definitely reliant on more than a few stereotypes, but I’m willing to hang in there for a bit to see how it develops.
i thought it was super cute. I liked the Molly character, and her sister the pothead was funny as well as the cop friend. The show definitely had its fair share of stupid fat jokes, but it actually spared no stereotype. No one was really safe in it, they made fun of everyone, even fourth graders. So, it didn’t seem necessarily exploitative to me.
I really didn’t like it. Felt like the worst of 2.5 Men (pothead sister, self-absorbed mother, jokes built on digs) and just stupid joke after joke. I liked the characters, but the writing was lousy, so I was disappointed. (Mentioned this post in my BlogHer write-up, BTW, thanks!)
I watched and was very sad as I love both main actors. It was a thirty minute long fat joke, as if we need more fatism in the world.
I watched and was highly disappointed in the lack of creativity the writers gave to these two people. The jokes were bland and the physical comic relief just wasn’t there. Unless the writers change format and decide to represent two fat people as actual people instead of props, then I will not be watching again. I like to give at least one chance…
I watched it, because I really like McCarthy from Gilmore Girls, but it was disappointing. I wanted to like it, but the severely lame fat jokes turned me off. I hope that the relationship stuff increases and the fat jokes decrease a lot. If this happens, I’ll watch, if not, I’ll be irritated.
Whenever I saw this ad, with Mike falling into tables and them breaking, I was all RAGE!!!! This is beyond bad, this is the type of humor only the most uncreative schoolyard bullies could appreciate. I wonder if this show would even be seen as funny by Beavis & Butthead, it’s that dumb.
I think there should be a protest against the show, this is almost infantile. “Durr hurr, fatty done break duh furniture haha” That’s not humor, it’s just stupid.
I agree with the majority of comments. I think that the reviews were too generous. The concept and my desire to see this show succeed and show fat people as people is exciting. The execution was basically 80% ugly fat jokes/gags and 20% story.
I’m a chuck lorre fan and hope he can turn this into something charming, however, after seeing the pilot, I wouldn’t bet on this happening.
I really wanted to like this because I love Melissa McCarthy and I also really like Chuck Lorre. Big Bang theory might be one of my favorite sitcoms of all time, but thinking back to most of his work, it’s based on stereotypes. I think the difference is that there is usually clever writing and some thoughtful story lines involved too. This was one old fat joke after another. Really lazy writing at best, also kind of cruel. It’s like the bullies who tortured me in middle school grew up and became sitcom writers.
It’s a waste of good talent, and the possibility of decent story lines. If they can get rid of their inner 10 year old boys and grow up they might actually have a decent sitcom.
I watched it last night and I found myself laughing…a lot. Maybe because it reminded me of my late husband and me.
I winced in pain as Mike fell into the table and, of course, it broke. But the finger pointing the wrong way made up for it.
I was ready to hate it because I assumed that it was going to be one long fat joke. Not so much for me.
I will definitely keep watching and maybe they will dump the mother and sister. I can’t figure out why they are even there!
I though that, yes, the fat jokes were infantile and far from funny. Also, the sister and cop best friend characters are a bit one-dimensional. However, Melissa McCarthy and the male lead play off of each other really well. I like that she took the first step in asking him to speak to her class. Plus, she’s confident without being wise-cracking, which is a nice change for a plus-size character.
I could use a lot less of the self-deprecating humor, though. And the laugh track is stupid. But all in all, I thought the show had heart. It just needs to be tweaked.
The Mike and Molly blog problem yesterday and today. I believe this is nothing more than a form of discrimination and bullying. Anyone who singles out people for the way they look is a form of discrimination. It is no different than if someone discriminated against race, religion, or color. The majority of our society is overweight. It is good to see people on television that are not a perfect model or have all of the perfect characteristics. I believe that much of television tries to paint overweight people as a problem in society. That is why they have to put them on television like cirus animals eat what someone tells them too, exercise, and treat them like they are these freaks because they are overweight. I have known just as many people die who are skinny as are overweight. Society tries to say if you are overwieght you are doomed. I believe this is a way for producers to say we don’t want to see fat people we want gorgeous people who have no flaws and paint a very phony picture of America. Get real this is DISCRIMINATION!!!
Come on!!!!!!!! This is a funny show. Whether fat or thin -these writters, actors, and characters are great~! If you are focusing on their weight-then you are missing some really funny stuff~!