Does The Super-Hot Melissa McCarthy Bring The Heat to Mike & Molly?

Show: Mike & Molly.

Premiered: Fall 2010.

Why Was It Made? Creator Mark Roberts had an idea about a show in which a man (Billy Gardell) and a woman (Melissa McCarthy) meet in Overeaters Anonymous and fall in love; Chuck Lorre wanted to produce it; and CBS wanted to be as deep in the Chuck Lorre business as it possibly could be.

Why Didn't I Watch? Much as I loved McCarthy (who plays the titular Molly) in Gilmore Girls and Samantha Who?, the Chuck Lorre factor prejudiced me against the show; given what I knew about Lorre's ideas about women based on his Two And A Half Men made me dubious that anything he had a hand in could portray a plus-size woman -- or man, for that matter — in a compelling, respectful way.

Why Give It A Shot? I wasn't moved to sample it when McCarthy won an Emmy for her Mike & Molly role in 2011 (the same year she stole Bridesmaids), but after loving her in The Heat, I thought maybe the time was right for me to introduce a weekly dose of McCarthy into my life.

What Aspects Of The Latest Episode Would Seem To Invite Further Viewing? The story finds Molly, in the cold open, coming to the epiphany that she can't stand to teach elementary school for another second, and climbs out the window to freedom (before needing to come back and have one of her students hand her out her purse). Though she backpedals a little for the sake of security, sitting down with a union rep to try to get her position back, that only convinces her that she needs to quit teaching too. So: story reset! Perfect time to get on board. I also loved the gag where Molly told Mike (Gardell) that he couldn't come out with her because the kind of dark drinking she planned to do required a couple of "hardcore booze-bags": cue her mother (Swoosie Kurtz) and sister (Katy Mixon) coming down the stairs to leave with her. At the bar, Molly confesses that her real dream has always been musical theatre, and later (when she's had a few) we see her belt out the "Stick to your own kind!" part of West Side Story, accompanying herself by using her stool as a bongo. Millions of moviegoers aren't wrong: Melissa McCarthy is funny -- even when she's playing a (basically) normal character. (I also loved Rondi Reed's one sharp scene as Peggy, Mike's mother and a lunch lady at Molly's school, reporting all the gossip surrounding Molly's breakdown, including her interpretation of what the Deaf kids had to say/sign about it.)

What Aspects Of The Latest Episode Discourage Further Viewing? It's a multicam sitcom that airs Monday nights on CBS, so groundbreaking, this material is not. Based on this episode, Gardell is not really bringing all that much to the table (though, to be fair, it's necessarily a Molly-centric episode). I can see how Molly's mother and sister's casual cruelty toward Molly could get old in the long run, though so far it's on the right side of funny-mean.

Final Verdict: I love Melissa McCarthy! I want to see what Molly's next job or jobs are going to be! I like it! WHO KNEW?