Bob Hearts Abishola

Bob Hearts Abishola shows promise and may just be worth watching so long as the characters remain somewhat authentic and it doesn't collapse into the usual tired cliches.

There is the beginning of a hopefully long story here.

I hate sitcoms. The laugh tracks, the predictable plots and the endings with a neat little bow but this one seemed a little different. It genuinely made me laugh and I actually cared for the main character, Abishola. I really liked the pilot episode and excited for more.

I won't spend too long comparing this show to others in Chuck Lorre's repertoire. I will say I think this is his weakest instalment yet.

While the show starts on a cute premise with the whole patient/nurse romantic dynamic, and the inclusion of Nigerian culture for novelty's sake, the show offers little else to keep you invested. The characters feel bland and one dimensional, conversations often feel painfully tedious and repetitive. Any development made with a character can and will be completely scrapped in the next season, which only serves to prolong an already boring narrative. There is little to no ongoing plot for us to feel invested in, which leaves it up to the shorter episodic storylines. And with the quality of writing for this show, this presents a problem. We generally see very predictable stories resolved in a very predictable fashion by very predictable characters. A show does not feel particularly good when it feels like you could have written it yourself, especially when you think you could have done it better. The acting is also rather hit and miss from the cast. While some have incredible comedic chops, like Uncle Tunde or Kemi, there are no performances that I would consider standout. But this is a conflated problem from poor writing, and repetitive character tropes and storylines. So it doesn't feel fair to pin this entirely on the cast.

With the 5th season approaching, I can only imagine all these aforementioned gripes getting worse with time, as they have been. Which is a shame, because behind all of the critisism is a story about love, family, and the trials and tribulations that come with both. And when Bob Hearts Abishola gets to the heart of it, with originality and eloquence, without the terrible attempt at comedic fluff, it can be magical. It can go from a 5 to an 8 or 9. Unfortunately as these moments in the show are so far and few between, it just serves as a reminder of what this show could be, but isn't.

I don't know how much this show has left to give. I just hope I have the patience to see it through.

Both Abishola and her uncles arrogance and superior attitudes are distasteful. Don't know why the writers decided to highlight these traits.

I really don't know why I still watch this show. Characters I like: Bob and his mother. Abishola's household especially uncle and aunt. The two nurses. The younger Nigerian worker.

Characters I dislike: Abishola is annoyingly demanding. The two siblings are annoyingly spoiled. The older Nigerian worker is annoyingly over acting.