Melissa McCarthy Makes Mike & Molly Marvelous

When I decided, last fall, to give Mike & Molly a shot, I wasn't sure it would actually take. Though McCarthy has been riding a pretty hot career wave since Bridesmaids (for which, lest we forget, she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress), her M&M role predated it, and came about at a time when she was a lot less powerful professionally and therefore would be less able to keep Molly from sliding into caricature the way characters tend to on other Chuck Lorre shows. Was my love of Melissa McCarthy enough to keep me interested?

Several months later, I'm not just watching but recording the reruns from past seasons, and Melissa McCarthy is the reason why — for the reasons that you would probably think, and some you might not.

Like most multicam sitcoms, Mike & Molly has a very old-fashioned feel. The situations are simple. The sets look like...sets. The jokes come at regular intervals, and the performers wait for the laughter to die down before plowing ahead to the next. None of this is meant to be critical; single-cam sitcoms have their own tropes that can be deployed well or poorly. The live setting gives the show a fun energy, and the cast is not short on assured live performers — obviously, Groundlings-reared McCarthy and standup comic Billy Gardell (who plays Mike) but Broadway veteran Swoosie Kurtz (as Molly's mother) and Steppenwolf mainstay Rondi Reed (as Mike's). The ensemble elevates the simple material — like, for instance, when a currently unemployed Molly tries out a job driving a forklift at her mother's boyfriend's beverage warehouse. My esteemed colleague Dave walked in just as Molly got behind the wheel and snarked, "I hope she knows how to drive that thing and that nothing bad happens!" Of course she didn't, and of course a lot of beverage cases were destroyed...but it was still funny. I'M SORRY, DAVE, THAT I LACK YOUR NOEL COWARDESQUE SENSE OF HUMOUR.

But I never would have stuck around to discover my love of Rondi Reed if not for McCarthy, who's what really makes the show worth watching. I can't know if it's because McCarthy insists on it, but Molly gets to be more than the henpecking wife nagging her husband about neglecting her or taking out the garbage; she also gets to be vulnerable (as she embarks, late in life, on a risky new career), sneaky (trying to hide her spending from Mike), dorky (having a chance meeting with a writing idol — played by Susan Sarandon, no less), and drunk (a lot!). None of this would be possible if McCarthy wasn't so game to do anything for a laugh, so thank God.

However, the other side of the equation is what the show does for her: it folds McCarthy's willingness to be funny in ways that don't flatter her into a winning character. While McCarthy is (obviously) totally hilarious on SNL, almost every character she plays there is a total freak. Molly integrates McCarthy's fearlessness with her heart, and lets her bring to life a recognizably human woman who's easy to root for and love. Maybe if McCarthy plays her for a couple more seasons, she'll get to play one in a movie someday too. Until then — and I never thought I'd say this — I'm grateful to Chuck Lorre for letting me hang out with her every week.