Pour le meilleur et le pire

This was actually quite a funny sitcom comedy for the first two seasons. The perky newly wed Woodcocks were in sharp contrast to the 20 year married Starks. I frequently laughed out loud and looked forward to watching it. There were plenty of pointed insights into relationships and married life in general.

Then something bizarre happened in season 3. The Woodcocks their next door neighbors disappear with no explanation offered & Eddie becomes big brother to a full grown black man (an absolutely ridiculous story line). Then the black man moves in with them. Then we have a cast of black characters added on. Were the producers including Brad Garrett who is also the lead actor cynically chasing urban African American TV ratings? Would love to know the thinking behind this.

The show becomes desperately unfunny immediately after that. The show then stopped after season 4. A mystery....

This show was so good but the new season is horrible. Woodcocks were great - why did they take them out? Kenny was the best character - made me LOL and he is gone. WTF? The Allie and Doug characters are lame - no other word to describe watching them outside of painful. I fast forwarded past most of "the wedding" episode - if I wanted to watch a cartoon I would. Now Til Death has added their political comments to the show in "the wedding" episode. We don't tune in to hear your political agenda. Boston Legal did that and they are off the air. The worst part of the show used to be the one scene in every episode (yes we noticed) where Joely would have her fake boobs (we know they are fake, too) hanging out and now the entire show is horrible. Change is not good - change it back or I'm out and I bet many more people are too.

The first two seasons of this are a decent funny sitcom. It is basically about a long time married couple who have a newly married couple move into next to them. This is fine for the first two seasons. However in Season 3 the newly married couple disappear and are erased from history.

It then just becomes about the established married couple. However a few episodes for Season 2 were inserted into Season 3 so the newly married couple just suddenly appear. Season 3 is also out of order so Kenny (who was my favourite character) is living with them with no explanation until later on in the season when he moves in.

Season 4 just loses the plot completely. Kenny disappears. A rich man and his young wife move in (if he was rich why would he live in a working class suburb??) An ongoing joke about the married couples, daughter's boyfriend thinking he is living in a sitcom stops being funny after the first episode the joke appears. One episode involves cartoons of the characters (and jumping a shark). It felt like they knew it was the last season and all the ideas they had for another six seasons they were cramming in. This is without the fact the daughter changes actress four times (twice in Season 4).

It is a shame as the acting is great. The first two seasons were good but it just all falls apart. I really wish I had left it alone after Season 2.

I read the first several messages on the board here, and people who don't like this show seem to be doing so for two main reasons - they think the longer-married couple is too bitter and unhappy, and they keep comparing the show to Everybody Loves Raymond. Well, I hope the show gets at least a few more episodes to reveal to those of you who aren't paying enough attention that Brad's character and his wife do really love each other and are trying to make their marriage better. A related idea the writers could emphasize is that the Woodcock's marriage will get stronger when the kids take off the rose-colored glasses and begin to love the people they married, not the idealized version of those people. And as for comparing to ELR, if you feel you absolutely must, this show is a lot kinder and more loving than that one.

I think this show seems kind of promising, especially since Brad Garrett from "Everybody Loves Raymond" is the star of the show. Brad Garrett plays a guy named Eddie Stamm who is one of those unhappy married guys who has been married for over 8,000 days to his wife, Joy Stamm (Joely Fisher). Then one day a newlywed couple (Eddie Kaye Thomas and Kat Foster) moves in next door and they try to teach the newlyweds on how marriage actually works. I liked the jokes where Brad Garrett is teaching Eddie Kaye Thomas about his marriage life and how everything else is pretty obvious in marriage. I hope this show lasts. This show premiered on FOX, September 2006.

BOTTOM LINE: IF YOU LIKE BRAD GARRETT ON "RAYMOND" THEN YOU WOULD LIKE HIM ON THIS SHOW