"Mom" & "Dads": Two New Sitcoms I Probably Won't Be Watching, For Two Different Reasons

I watched the pilots of two new sitcoms.  Moms is critically acclaimed.  It stars Anna Faris of the Scary Movie franchise, and Allison Janney as her mother.  Anna plays Christy, a working mother with a young son and teenage daughter, and a slacker ex-husband.  She comes from a background of neglect and drugs.  The pilot episode, which was, by the way, quite funny, has her come home from work listening to a self-help CD, and she witnesses her daughter’s long-haired, half-naked boyfriend crawling out her daughter’s window.  The daughter feels no shame about this, and the mother doesn’t make a big stink about it, saying she can’t reprimand her daughter for things she did herself.  She is in love with the boss of the restaurant where she works as a waitress, but he’s already married.  They still want to continue seeing each other, however.  Her slacker ex spends his time playing violent video games with his son that involves beating a hooker with a bat.  After reconnecting with her mother at an AA meeting, they share lunch, where it is revealed during the conversation that the mother once tried to snort cocaine out of a shag carpet, to which the mother retorted that it pays to be thrifty, and that she ran a meth lab out of her home, to which she comments, “It’s called ‘work’!”  The characters are all immoral in one way or another, but they did manage to wring humor from the deplorable situations.

     No wonder the critics love it so much, and I predict it will be a hit.  It sadly, but unabashedly, reflects modern life in America for many families.  A lot of people will see themselves in these immoral characters, and laugh right along!

     Now Dads, which has been universally panned by critics, is, unfortunately, not a laugh riot.  We found a few amusing moments, but the whole pilot was a rather stiff affair.  It has potential, but will it be around long enough for the characters to develop?  Unlike Mom, the premise and the characters are not obviously immoral; hence, one reason the critics probably didn’t like it: It wasn’t filthy enough, except for one scene at the very end with a case of sexting.  Other than this, its more racy elements were merely suggested.  Although a show like this always has the potential to max out on the immorality meter sooner or later, like most of them do, such as the still popular Two and a Half Men, it wasn’t manifest in the Dads pilot like it was for Mom.

     I probably won’t end up watching either one.  Although I like Anna Faris and some other members of the cast, Mom is already crossing the line.  Likewise, I like both Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi, but their material isn’t so funny yet, and if the negative hype is any indication, Dads will be the first show to be canceled this season.

     But there is a faction of viewers in middle America, and quite a large faction I would think, for which morality really does matter.  And although I may make too many exceptions already, I’ll be damned if I’m just going to watch some new show just because the critics liked it and it happens to be funny.  There are other considerations… and other shows. 

Photos from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2660806/mediaindex, http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/02/dads-seth-macfarlanes-new-comedy-faces-a-tough-room-at-the-tca-press-tour, http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/02/dads-seth-macfarlanes-new-comedy-faces-a-tough-room-at-the-tca-press-tour