Should You Trust People Who Love Don't Trust The B---- In Apartment 23?
Show: Don't Trust The B---- In Apartment 23
Premiered: April 2012
Why Was It Made? This is going to sound crazy, but I seriously think someone was so inspired by the brilliance of James Van Der Beek Week on Funny or Die in January 2011 that he or she or they started with the idea of Van Der Beek playing a dickish version of himself, and then built a show around that character...sort of.
Why Did I Stop Watching? I watched the pilot because (a) ABC put it on iTunes in advance of its premiere, and (b) I was in Canada visiting my sister and needed a show I could watch on my computer because there isn't a TV in the guest room. (I know, right?) It made me laugh maybe once? So I figured that was enough.
Why Give It Another Shot? So many people that I like and whose TV taste I respect love it. And with a couple of episodes that hadn't aired before ABC cancelled the show going up on Hulu (and elsewhere) this past Friday, I thought I would see if it got much better since I watched it last.
What Aspects Of The Latest Episode Would Seem To Invite Further Viewing? I went with 2-19, "Original Bitch," which IMDb made me think was the first new one? Apparently that's not true, but whatever: if I'm actually right, and Van Der Beek is the reason the show exists, then he's really held up his end: he's the funniest thing in the episode as he learns that the man who raised him is not his biological father, and that his mother had encounters with all seven of the dudes in a summer stock production of Seven Brides For Seven Brothers many years ago.
What Aspects Of The Latest Episode Discourage Further Viewing? I have no problem with a good anti-hero in a sitcom -- see Archer, The Thick Of It, even Curb Your Enthusiasm -- but Krysten Ritter's brittle Chloe is every bit the bitch the show's bowdlerized title promises, with no redeeming qualities that I could see. I mean, I generally most admire the character in a show who's the most ruthless and unyielding in his or her pursuit of a goal, but when that goal is to become the featured foot candy on a syndicated '90s dance show (which, by the way, how old is Chloe supposed to be, anyway?), it's hard to get invested. Meanwhile, Chloe's roommate June (Dreama Walker) has the opposite problem, in that she's too soft and too boring. And I know Walker's capable of more, because I saw Compliance.
Final Verdict: Well, it's important to note that the show has actually declined in funniness: I laughed once at the pilot, but at "Original Bitch," the tally stayed at zero. Also, the lesson of this episode seemed to be that women really can be true friends to one another. I already knew this, so I'm gonna...go.