PILOT REVIEW: Better With You

BETTER WITH YOU

Starring: Joanna Garcia, Jennifer Finnigan, Josh Cooke, Jake Lacy, with Kurt Fuller, and Debra Jo Rupp
Created by Shana Goldberg-Meehan
Written by Shana Goldberg-Meehan
Directed by James Burrows

Better With You is a new multi-camera sitcom from Shana Goldberg-Meehan (Friends) that centers on three couples at very different stages of their relationship. Ben and Maddie (Josh Cooke and Jennifer Finnigan) have been together for nine years but are not married ("a valid life choice"). Maddie's sister Mia (Joanna Garcia) has met and gotten engaged to Casey (Jake Lacy) after 7 weeks due to the fact that she's pregnant. Their parents (Kurt Fuller and Debra Jo Rupp) have been married 35 years and aren't quite as romantic as they once were, but are accepting of the immature and oddball Casey because it means there's going to be a wedding and a baby.

Better With You showed promise in its pilot. Coupled with Mike & Molly, this may be good news for fans of multi-camera comedies after all of last year's new offerings crashed and burned due in no small part to their poor quality. Not everything is together yet but it seems to take multi-camera sitcoms longer to get it together than it does single-camera sitcoms or dramas. The cast is strong. Joanna Garcia and Jennifer Finnigan are good together as sisters with very different outlooks on life and Josh Cooke delivered many of the funniest lines in the pilot ("so quick thinking, not good thinking"). I am mixed on Jake Lacy - I realize he's supposed to be immature and dense but he comes off as trying to hard to play that stereotype. The parents (who weren't seen much comparatively) are early standouts. Both seem like they will be excellent supporting roles. The show has good ideas and good moments. Mia being pregnant seemed a bit too contrived and predictable but we'll go with it.

Overall, it has promise. Nestled in-between The Middle and Modern Family, ABC should give this show some time to grow. It occasionally slipped into sitcom cliches but for the most part seemed likable and enjoyable. And best of all, it has a theme song - a sorely missed part of sitcoms in today's TV. The cuts between the scenes (photo reels showing the new settings) were a bit distracting, I'm not sure if that's necessary to keep. Still, Better With You shows promise and that's good enough for a pilot of a multicam sitcom.

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