Whee? Screen: ABC
How Long Before We Called It A Night On Super Fun Night?
Long enough. Maybe too long.
New Show Attempted: Super Fun Night.
Premise: Three socially awkward female friends challenge themselves to be more social by planning fun new activities every Friday night.
How Far I Expected To Get: Having heard a lot about this embattled production (dumped from one network in a multi-camera format; picked up by another after getting revamped as a single-cam), and not being particularly enamoured of series star/creator Rebel Wilson, I didn't think I'd make it the whole way through.
How Much I Watched
What Did It: Kimmie (Wilson) and her best friends, Helen-Alice (Liza Lapira) and Marika (Lauren Ash), decide to make the week's activity a trip to a piano bar/karaoke situation; though Kimmie has had paralyzing stage fright since she was a child, her new colleague Kendall (Kate Jenkinson) encourages her to work on it, because as a lawyer, there will be many situations that require Kimmie to speak in front of a group. Then, when Kimmie is about to go up, Kendall -- who had been invited but begged off -- takes the stage and does a melisma-riffic rendition of "True Colors," after which she tells Kimmie she purposely did it to intimidate her. These women have known each other less than a day. I know that any show in which a working attorney still goes by the name of "Kimmie" is kind of cartoonish, but for Kendall to identify this dork as her primary work competition -- even if she's set her sights on Richard (Kevin Bishop), the boss's son, and thinks he has a thing for Kimmie -- is not credible. And anyway, why is work intrigue even happening?!
Worth Taking A Run At It? No. This either needs to turn into a more normal work/friend sitcom (Parks & Recreation), or else get way weirder (30 Rock) -- the middle ground feels pointless -- but I feel like it won't be around long enough to get retooled into a third incarnation. And lord, all the Aussies' American accents are distractingly horrible. For a show called Super Fun Night, it sure feels like a drag to watch it.