PILOT REVIEW: 2 Broke Girls

2 BROKE GIRLS

Starring: Kat Dennings, Beth Behrs, Garrett Morris, Jonathan Kite, Matthew Moy
Created by Michael Patrick King and Whitney Cummings
Written by Whitney Cummings and Michael Patrick King, Directed by James Burrows

2 Broke Girls is a new CBS sitcom that is another new twist on the "Odd Couple" genre (yes, at this point, it basically has become its own genre... or at least subcategory of sitcoms). These types of shows are all about chemistry and luckily the leads in this show have it. The show centers on brassy Brooklyn waitress Max (Kat Dennings) who befriends a former heiress, Caroline Channing (Beth Behrs), who lost all her money in a scheme involving her father and is now working at the diner. Rounding out the cast is the rest of the diner employees - cashier Earl (Garrett Morris), an old and wise black man, womanizer Oleg (Jonathan Kite), and quirky boss Han Lee (Matthew Moy), who calls himself Bryce in the opener to see more American.

THE GOOD: As I said before, these types of shows work if there's chemistry and don't work if there's not. Based on that statement, this show should work. The two leads play off each other well and seem to already have natural timing with each other, which is sometimes difficult to do early on in sitcoms. The basic plot of the show also gives it many directions it can go. By having Max and Caroline move in together, there are many many storylines that can happen. There were some funny scenes including the incidental kiss on the subway and Max's interaction with another socialite who she babysits for (Molly Johnson in a scene-stealing recurring role). The role of Caroline wasn't given a ton of depth yet but newcomer Beth Behrs seems to be a natural so far (and is not bad to look at either!) Finally, Matthew Moy seems like he has potential to be very funny as the boss but he was barely seen in the pilot. It was also clever to show how much they made to date as the final clip.

THE BAD: Like many sitcoms in their early days, this one still needs some cleaning up. Kat Dennings is good in parts of it but seemed to be overacting at times (the hand motions were over the top). There were a few stupid jokes - the "marry the ketchup" gag seemed to be right out of Green Acres while there were far too many topical jokes. References to things like twitter and Jersey Shore are fine if they make sense in the context but they shouldn't be used as a punchline like a stand up comedian would. It seems forced now and will be dated if the show is a hit and makes it to syndication. They need to figure out something to do with Jonathan Kite as Oleg ASAP because his character didn't work at all. And while this may be CBS to blame, it wasn't that great to see all the clips I've seen all summer in commercials comprise the cold open. Give us something new to start it out!

BOTTOM LINE: I think it is very difficult to judge sitcoms from their pilots, particularly multi-camera ones with an audience. There's a natural learning curve that has to happen with timing, chemistry, etc. So I like to go by the potential I see and I see a lot in this show. The leads are good and the plot is simple but good. It's only going to get better with a few more episodes and I think this has real potential to be the partner for How I Met Your Mother that CBS has been searching for for awhile.