Let’s take a look at some more debuting comedies.
    
“2 Broke Girls” (CBS): This was the big CBS premiere, but is it worth watching? It depends on if viewers have a problem with the filmed-in-front-of-a-studio-audience sitcom. CBS still uses it heavily, but not many other networks or channels do. So fans of “30 Rock” looking for something new to watch might get immediately turned off by what sounds like canned laughter in the background after every joke.
    
However, a number of ’80s sitcoms like “Family Ties” or “Head of the Class” count as among my favorites. And stuff like “All in the Family” is still revolutionary and hilarious today, even when viewed in today’s context. So while I think these type of shows are outdated, if the right one comes along, it can still click. “2 Broke Girls,” while cheesy at times, came off as a nostalgia trip to me.
    
“2 Broke Girls” follows Max (Kat Dennings) and Caroline (Beth Behrs), waitresses at a diner in the big city. When Caroline’s family loses all of their money, somehow bringing her from millionaire to poor house in one fell swoop, she has to take on work as a waitress to support herself. All the while, the two have fantasies of starting a cupcake business using Caroline’s business savvy and Max’s cupcake know-how.
    
Yes, some of the writing is not exactly on par. In the pilot, the essence of the plot is that Max’s boyfriend is a jerk, and he tries to cheat on Max with Caroline. When Caroline refuses, he cheats on Max with someone else, suggested it’s probably habitual cheating. Caroline confronts Max about it, and Max accuses her of lying. But then Max quickly finds her boyfriend cheating with someone else and immediately tells him to get out. Max and Caroline make up and become best friends. This all is crammed in episode one.
    
The problem is that this plot provokes more questions than answers. Why is Max dating this obvious idiot? The show tries to explain it away by saying Max was just intoxicated by his body, but that seems extremely short-sighted for the character already. Plus how have Max and this guy been together as long as they had if he is stupid enough to actually bring people back to their apartment to have sex with, while she is at work? Like “New Girl,” “2 Broke Girls” tries to get instant sympathy by having the main character getting cheated on, and it just feels tacked on and forced.
    
The show really works when it’s just throwing out one-liners and having fun with the few relationships it’s established. Mainly Behrs as Caroline is the breakout here. Her character reminds one of Blair from “The Facts of Life,” who also used slapstick and repartee to foil her snobbish character. Caroline is more fun-loving than Blair, but she has the expressions and mannerisms down. “2 Broke Girls” is a great, vacuous addition to anybody’s TV-watching week.
    
“How To Be a Gentleman” (CBS): But this show is not. Just judging from the cast, it should be a great show. It has breakout characters from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” (David Hornsby), “Entourage” (Kevin Dillon), “Flight of the Concords” (Rhys Darby) and more. Yet it just comes off as so flat and formulaic.
    
Unlike in “2 Broke Girls,” Hornsby’s Andrew Carlson, who thinks of literally everything in the sense of what a gentleman would do and writes a “how to be a gentleman” column for a magazine, does not seem like anyone someone would actually meet in real life. His character is easily the most dislikable of the show, yet he’s the main character. That is a problem.
    
His foil with Dillon comes off as extremely forced. A few of Dillon’s lines read like they are coming straight from the first draft of a script, like the last line in the pilot: “You were being you. We’ll fix that.” I feel like I have seen this show a million times already. Skip.
    
“Whitney” (NBC): Just judging from the bland title of the show, one can already see this is just a tableau for Whitney Cummings to try some of her relationship humor within the context of a loosely formed television show. So much of the first two episodes just read like lame stand-up comedy jokes. From a quick Wikipedia search, yes, Cummings has an extensive stand-up background.
    
While her boyfriend Alex (Chris D’Elia) has some hilarious facials, he constantly just comes off as fake, like he is living this wacky life with no consequences. His face is stuck in this raised-eyebrow pose for two episodes.
    
At its worst, the show comes off as preachy about what a relationship is and is not. At its best, it is bland. Skip.

— Robby O’Daniel is a graduate student in communications. He can be reached at rodaniel@utk.edu.