Hope & Faith

Being a fan of quality comedy product, imagine how shocked I was when I first saw this appallingly BAD show! Now I didn't watch just one episode and dismiss it, oh no, I watched most of the 1st Season and half of the second, this I think puts me in a position where I am able to criticise...

There have been many U.S. 'family type' sitcoms, but this must rank as one of the most dire in recent history.

Firstly the writing is, if one can call it writing, weak beyond belief - these people aren't writers, they are talentless hacks who couldn't spot a quality gag at 5 yards. Plot lines vary from the merely predictable, to trite and twee and to the plain and simple f***ing lousy!! But sometimes weak writing can be counteracted by a solid cast with a strong comedy sensibility - sadly Hope & Faith has nothing like a good cast.

In all fairness, most of the cast just about acquit themselves as serviceable actors - but just only just about.

The award for most irritating and misjudged comedy performance goes to the appallingly bad, Kelly Ripa - a so-called actress with a grasp of comedy technique that it is so lacking as to be non-existent.

With over-the-top, facial 'mugging' being her main stock in trade, Ripa spirals from one bad scene to another even worse scene without barely time to take a breath - the only thing she seems have in any sort of abundance is energy, for this I cannot fault her.

But energy and over-acting are simply not enough to constitute a good comedy performance - which makes Kelly Ripa no comedy actress.

There is no subtlety in Ripa's attempts at acting, no refinement and virtually no comedy timing on her behalf - surely things that are standard requirements for a quality comedy performance.

If all this sounds like I'm Kelly Ripa-bashing, then yeah, I suppose I am. But Ripa certainly deserves it as she probably the very worst thing about this show, well, maybe Kelly Ripa AND the scriptwriters should take equal blame.

I didn't expect Hope a& Faith to set the sitcom genre alight, but by the very same measure, I didn't expect anything quite as bad as this REALLY is.

I caught this show here in England on a cable channel called ABC1, along with other shows that were as new to British viewers as Hope and Faith , a couple of these shows were: Less Than Perfect and Eight Simple Rules...

Bottom line is this, I was expecting no more, no less from these other shows - I was VERY pleasantly surprised! Both Less Than Perfect and Eight Simple Rules are excellent comedy shows and are vastly superior to the massively inferior Hope & Faith.

I must cite Eight Simple Rules in particular for having a perfect cast, providing top-notch, classy performances, augmented by excellent, witty and razor-sharp writing - if Hope & Faith had only half the quality of ESR, then it wouldn't be quite that bad, problem is Hope & Faith, in comparison to Eight Simple Rules, is left floating dead in the water.

PG.

The American Broadcasting Company, the biggest network mess in the U.S., brings us arguably one of the worst sit-coms ever conceived in Hope And Faith. H&F stars Kelly Ripa as Faith Fairfield, a washed up soap opera actress who moves in with her sister's family because she has no money left (she must have spent it all on her clothes). Ex-Murphy Brown star Faith Ford plays her sister Hope and Ted McGinley plays Hope's husband.

This show relies on 50 years of classic situation comedy devices. Unlike some shows that try to bring in something original on occasion, H&F plays it safe with hackneyed plots that have been used for decades. The show has some brutal acting (Ripa is a gorgeous woman but she has a very grating voice), awful scripts, and poor direction and awful logic. The good thing about the show is that its sheer awfulness makes it a must-see for people who truly cherish bad products. It's truly worth watching this show to see what rehashed plots they trot out, to see what Kellly will be wearing, or seeing Ms. Ford and Mr. McGinley playing thankless roles and playing second fiddle to everyone's favorite baby factory.

They also rely on a lot of guest stars; Clint Black, Regis Philbin, Kathy Lee Gifford(!), Kevin Sorbo, and Roger Clemens are just some of the people who've decided to appear in this embarrassment. Still, the show is doing pretty good for ABC but if this show was on a better network it would have been canceled long ago. If this is the best that ABC can do for a sit-com, ABC will be the Number 4 network for a good long time. Still, if you cherish cheesy, awful-out-of-the box products then check this out because I can't see any non-reality T.V. show being worse than this.

I make time to watch one thing on Fridays and that is Hope and Faith (and I'm a 40 yr old guy). I think it's real funny. The chemistry between Faith and Kelly is perfect. You couldn't find a better partner for Kelly. To add to that you have a third person who fits right in with the two: Ted. He is also great. I like him better now than I did 20 years ago. Kelly is funny as hell. I think she's one of the funniest women in TV today. Her character is perfect for her and she knows how to whine and complain and showoff like no one. Her timing is great. She worked for Charlie in his dentist's office and she was a scream! She botched everything and pursued one of the younger patient's father (while the patient had a mold stuck in his mouth!). Ha! The show started off without many sexual innuendos which was a real nice change but this season the shows are full of them and I think that's kind of a shame. It's even funnier that they have brought in Kelly's husband and Regis and jokes are made about their real-life relationships. Show is way better than Bonnie Hunt's show which went off the air (although I watched that, too, and I think Bonnie and their crew were real talented). I think it is the funniest show on Friday nights. Oh, the writing is great! Please don't go off the air!

The pilot for this show was terrible. The jokes were tired, and predictable. None of it had any logical things in it. And the acting was poor. But in the following episodes, the are just great. The jokes are unpredictable. funny, and the acting has improved so much. The writing is getting a lot better, also. For those of you who thought the pilot was bad, give the new ones a chance. They are really good!

Hope & Faith: 4/5

TV rating: TV-PG D. There ae some sexual references, but not to bad for little kids. They won't get any of the jokes, though.

I had low expectations the first time I watched this show, but it has quickly become one of my favorites. Faith Ford and Kelly Ripa are perfect for their roles on "Hope & Faith". Hope (Ford) is a housewife/caterer whose sister Faith (Ripa), a soap opera actress, lives with her, as her career is pretty much dead. Her husband Charley (Ted McGinley) is a dentist, and is always in a friendly tiff with Faith. Older daughter Sydney (Megan Fox) is a mini Faith, and is the source of a few sarcastic yet funny lines. Middle child Hayley (Macey Cruthird) is the smartest of the bunch, and has the curliest hair I've ever seen. The only person I think does not fit in with the rest of the cast is the son Justin. The character would be fine, but Paulie Litt's look and timing are off (I'm not knocking a little kid's acting skills; I think they could have found someone better). It is also fun to see how the situations Hope & Faith get into play out. I would recommend this to anyone who likes a good laugh, or likes any of the cast.

*On a side note, I find it funny that their names are Hope and Faith, two values/qualities that have similar meanings. I also like that one character is named Faith, and the other is played by a Faith.