Jennifer Falls

Just started watching this on YouTube. Actually alot better than many of the current crop of network sitcoms.

Jennifer Doyle (Jaime Pressly) is a single mother Gretchen (Dylan Gelula). She loses her high paying investment banking job and is forced to move back with her mother Maggie (Jessica Walter). The only job prospect is a waitress in her brother Wayne (Ethan Suplee)'s bar which he owns with his wife Stephanie (Nora Kirkpatrick). She reconnects with her childhood friend Dina (Missi Pyle).

This is a pretty traditional single gal sitcom. Jaime Pressly is pretty good for the comedic genre. They also have some good comedic talents like Walter, Suplee, and Pyle. The situation is mostly unlikely but it's light enough to be funny. It's average without consistent big laughs. It's a good show for the smaller cable networks but nothing special or original. It's canceled after one season.

This show has a really good cast, but it's not an especially good show. It fails on two levels, on the basic level of just not being funny, and on a deeper level.

First the simple level. Jennifer Falls just isn't very funny. It is a traditional sitcom with jokes you can see coming from a mile away and follows a tired and pedestrian formula. The most interesting character in the show is actually the passive-aggressive sister-in-law, who makes me think of the boss in Office Space. She's very unlikable, but at least she's different.

My deeper objections have to do with the way Jennifer's character is treated by the show. This is more of a feminist analysis type of objection, so if you hate looking at subtle sexism just ignore this part.

The show begins as Jennifer is fired from her high paying job because she has "anger issues." It is established that she is good at her job but that people don't like working with her. When she's told she is abrasive (or similar words) she points out that this is exactly what is appreciated in male businessmen.

It's nice they acknowledge that, but the show as a whole still reinforces the idea that there's something wrong with Jennifer. She is frequently told she has anger issues even though nothing she does is exceptionally hostile; at worst she has highly-irritated issues. By echoing her ex-boss's sentiments, the show seems to be accepting that it was reasonable to fire her.

It is later established in the pilot that her success lead her to ignore her friends and left her unhappy. In other words, this show reinforces that pervasive idea that businesswomen lose themselves, are unhappy, and need to be nicer. This is the sort of thing Susan Faludi wrote about in Backlash, and it's a shame it's still going on. I'm sure the show's creator would deny that he's trying to put women in their place by portraying a high-powered woman executive as mean and hollow and dressing her in a sexy waitress outfit while she bonds with old friends and finds the man of her dreams, but that's what's happening.

Subtly putting women in their place is so common that I won't not watch a show for doing it. I'm a little concerned with the sitcom Playing House having a high-powered executive quit her job to nurture her pregnant friend, but the show is quite funny so I watch it anyway. Ultimately the problem with Jennifer Falls is it's just not funny. But the other stuff bugs me tool.

What started out as an unoriginal and generally unfunny show has now sunk into abject unwatchability. The premise of an adult child moving in with a parent is well worn, and there is nothing new or original that "Jennifer falls" adds to this genre. In fact, there is nothing new or original (or particularly funny) about this show at all. The characters are unlikable and unfunny, and the scripts have collapsed into boring platitudes in a desperate attempt to substitute vulgarity for wit.

A well-traveled path, instead of having Jennifer- an ostensible fired investment banking wiz- come up with a financial strategy to help her brother's bar, or otherwise demonstrate competence or generate some interest, the show lazily mimics the speaking to the camera tactic of the truly well-written "Modern Family" while the main characters merrily discuss sexual encounters "in the summer of sophomore year" (i.e. at age 15) and defecating on their sexual partner's doorsteps as adults, apparently in some sort of retribution.

Jennifer has indeed fallen, and she can't get up.

I started watching this show today, and i watched 6 episodes without even realising, to me, that's a sign that i like the series. It's funny, and as i said, maybe typical, but it doesn't loose it's humor. I had to stop myself from watching more episodes, and then later i had to check IMDb because i really hoped they would make more seasons, but sadly it has been cancelled. I understand some people may not like, but it's definitely not a 1 out of 10, and i see no reason why 38 people should rate it like so. Anyway, it's a shame it was cancelled, i really couldn't wait for season 2, but i guess i'll have to find something else :/