PILOT REVIEW: GCB

GCB

Starring: Leslie Bibb, Jennifer Aspen, Marisol Nichols, Miriam Shor, David James Elliott, Mark Deklin, Brad Beyer, with Annie Potts, and Kristin Chenoweth

Based on the Book by Kim Gatlin, Developed by Robert Harling
Written by Robert Harlin, Directed by Alan Poul

GCB, formerly known as Good Christian Bitches, is a new hour-long comedy from ABC about former high school "mean girl" Amanda Vaughn (Leslie Bibb) who returns to her hometown of Dallas from California with her children after her ponzi-scheming husband is killed in a controversial car crash. She moves in with her socialite mother (Annie Potts) but must contend with the girls she was so mean to in high school who are now the queen bees of the community and church. That group includes Carlene (Kristen Chenoweth), a former nerd now married to a successful businessman (David James Elliott), Sharon (Jennifer Aspen) who struggles with her weight and is married to a man (Brad Beyer) who was (and still is) in love with Amanda, and Cricket (Miriam Shor), a successful businesswoman with many connections married to a man (Mark Deklin) who Amanda discovers is in the closet. Rounding out the main cast is single real estate agent Heather (Marisol Nichols) who befriends Amanda.

THE GOOD: This show is an interesting one that has some good elements but can't quite put it all together (more on that later). The strongest part is Kristin Chenoweth who is a hoot as queen bee Carlene. Her passive-aggressive nature with the Texas drawl led to most of the best moments of pilots. From her quoting of bible verses to suit her agenda to under the breath comments like "I don't think he's Christian," she was a standout. Annie Potts is also strong as Amanda's mother. I wish we had seen more of her in the pilot. The show does a very nice job of setting the scene and capturing Texas' larger-than-life stereotype. It's not offensive to Christians, but it certainly pokes fun at Texas Christians.

THE BAD: Not everything came together in the pilot. It seemed to get lost in its own quirkiness once in awhile and the rest of the queen bees don't nearly match up to Chenoweth in terms of nastiness and audience appeal. Something that really doesn't work is Sharon's eating problem. What an old joke to have her eating something in every single scene. That's going to get old real quickly. There's always a problem with a show when a supporting character is the clear-cut standout (look at Suburgatory and Cheryl Hines) because I kept getting bored with Leslie Bibb's scenes and wishing that either Chenoweth or Potts were in the scene to spice things up. If the others don't pick up their game, this is going to get old quickly.

BOTTOM LINE: GCB is a smart show for ABC that has a chance to have broad appeal but I'm not sure it's for me. I love the Texas element but it has too much Desperate Housewives in it to make me really love it. But I'm real tempted to come back solely for Kristin Chenoweth.