PILOT REVIEW: Best Friends Forever

BEST FRIENDS FOREVER

Starring: Jessica St. Clair, Lennon Parham, Luka Jones, Stephen Schneider, Daija Owens

Created by Lennon Parham and Jessica St. Clair
Written by Lennon Parham and Jessica St. Clair, Directed by Fred Savage

Best Friends Forever is a new sitcom from NBC that focuses on longtime friends Jessica and Lennon (Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham) reuniting after Jessica's husband files for divorce. She moves in with Lennon and her live in boyfriend Joe (Luka Jones) as she tries to piece her life back together. Rounding out the cast is a former flame of Jessica's, Rav (Stephen Schneider), and a precocious nine year old neighbor Queenetta (Daija Owens).

THE GOOD: Let's just talk about Queenetta for a minute, who was really the only enjoyable part of the pilot. Having a precocious black child in the cast is nothing new (look at Bud on The Cosby Show) but Queenetta absolutely stole the show in the pilot. She was the only think that made me smile, much less laugh. Best Friends Forever is not going to be around for the long haul but someone should find Daija Jones a role somewhere because she is a natural on camera.

THE BAD: Well, pretty much everything this side of Queenetta. I don't think that the writing is necessarily bad but Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham really didn't work at all as the leads. I felt the whole time like I was infringing on a friendship. It's one thing to have natural chemistry with each other but not at the expense of making the audience feel left out. The acting wasn't entirely believable and the whole pilot was shrill, particularly Jessica St. Clair who had very few likable qualities as she tried to do too much with her role. I kept going between being bored and feeling awkward during the pilot. Neither of those feelings are what a viewer should come away with. It just missed the funny entirely for nearly every scene except, of course, Queenetta's two scenes. Also, who knew that the "proposal" at the end was going to be a misunderstanding? Probably everyone.

BOTTOM LINE: This will join NBC's laundry list of failed single-camera observational comedies. Unlike Bent, which had some real likable qualities but no support from NBC, this one was just flat and screams midseason burnoff when you watch it. Maybe NBC should build a multicam comedy around Queenetta... just a thought.