Angel from Hell

Quick banter, wry wit, and the right kind of silly. (Shades of the well done gem, "Psych") It is a perfect blend of Jane Lynch's sardonic style, and Maggie Lawson's superb comedic straight-man skill (wrapped in her effortless beauty). And Kyle Bornheimer brings a his game by making the cool-guy-jock character sensitive, a little clueless, and hilarious. "Angel from Hell" is a funny show with characters I actually care about, and humor that feels organic. If you like "Life in Pieces", "Modern Family", and even Maggie Lawson's long running home, "Psych", then you will appreciate this character driven comedy as the fun, smart, playful comedy that it is.

Jane Lynch plays a guardian angel (word angel being used loosely here) that's watching over Maggie Lawson character Allison who is an uptight doctor with a "no fun just work!" policy.

The pilot is interesting and light hearted which got me interested in following this series.

There are two issues I can already spot in this series.

First off this is a one camera production even though it really doesn't have to be! you have a supernatural being that is arguably more demon than angel, why not dramatize it? a single camera approach is more appropriate for more realistic settings and slices of life stories.... or blair witch projects knockoffs! not in a supernatural series, it just cheapens the production.

Second is the dialogue, for the most part the lines are OK, the main actresses are fine and Jane Lynch is living for this role but... some of the lines here are beyond saving, they're so bad they actually take you out of what was supposed to be a heart felt moment! Now admittedly they aren't too many of those but still when they come up you'll notice them!

Over-all this is an interesting series with flaws, still the good out ways the bad by a mile so give it a shot and see how it goes!

There's a video on youtube called "First Look: Angel From Hell on CBS" that has most of the story and the better jokes and is 5 minutes long. Having seen that before watching the full episode, I would say A) I might have liked this better if I hadn't already heard the best jokes, and B) this might work better as a 5-minute-episodes web series.

The first episode is generally cute, with a very unangelic Lynch claiming to be a guardian angel. It's one of those shows where they don't want to say she is or isn't, which is cute but seems to have less potential here than in Wilfred (U.S. version), which handled that "is it real" thing so beautifully.

One issue I have with this series is that Maggie Lawson really doesn't seem to need a guardian angel. Her life doesn't seem all that bad, certainly not George Bailey bad. This inclines me to think that Lynch is not an angel, in which case she's a very skillful and disturbing stalker and why isn't Maggie calling the police?

Still, if your favorite thing about Glee was Lynch, you'll probably like this show. While I find her generally amusing, I was never as big a fan of her as a lot of people, so for me the show just isn't worth pursuing.

I'll give this an 8 out of 10 for room to improve and I'm really disappointed by all the negative reviews around the web. I enjoyed everyone's performance and the snappy witty dialogue. Jane Lynch is perfect as an Angel with a tendency to get sloshed. And who doesn't love Maggie Lawson? Anyway, it was good to see Kevin Pollack, though he didn't have much of a role (yet) as Allison's father. Was it an original storyline? Perhaps not and as a pilot the writer's should have really pushed something new with an Angel from Hell theme. But still I was happy to have seen it. Pilots often suffer and some with horrendous critiques, just look at Seinfeld. I hope they don't cancel it before given a chance. Fingers crossed.

Written to be airy wittified fare for casual TV watchers.

Cute, but not that funny. The writing substitutes largely weak, bubbly repartee where there should be stuff that I believe is supposed to be cleverly walking the tightwire between reality and fantasy. Surprised to see one flub in direction resulting in an embarrassingly unexplainable scenario. One saving grace is that the direction often enough does work and is at least consistent. So it's a matter of whether or not you go for that sort of thing. Think of it as a throwback to My Favorite Martian which we're supposed to see as fresh and updated, stylistically.

All the actors are dependably "on" when rolling; at least within the parameters of the coloring book character direction. Production is sufficiently professional. But (as you can tell) all the foregoing isn't compelling enough to quite get me to let my guard down and bask in the mythic glow normally associated with the concept of angelic presence.

If you just want a sweet little show about a doofy guardian angel, this'll do. If you want something truly dramatically/comically compelling, skip it.

It's too bad: If you're going to storm the barricades of t1ghta55ed American Evangelical pop theological correctness, you ought to go a little more full-bore than this. Give us some real irony, even if you're aiming for something lighthearted: They're not mutually exclusive properties of comedy. "God, the Devil, & Bob" is the best example, off the top o' my head, of a show that succeeded at nailing what "Angel from Hell" seems to aim for.