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.

Hope and Faith..is by far one of the worst comedies ever made. It's a mish mash of mistaken identity, wrong place wrong time etc.. scenarios. None of which could ever happen in real life. As for the main character "Faith" nobody in reality could be that self centered and shallow. The cast and writers absolutely stink perhaps they would be better suited to taking part in kids puppet shows because thats the height of the talent employed in creating this sordid excuse for comedy.

I can't think of an episode that was even remotely funny. The worst episodes were the ones about the funeral and the court case. The recipe for good comedy is to have talented actors,writers and story lines with some presence in reality. This is something the producers failed to grasp.

Hope (Faith Ford) is an uptight happily married mom of three in Glen Falls, Ohio. Her tidy world is up-ended by the arrival of her celebrity sister, the giant mess Faith (Kelly Ripa). Faith was a Hollywood diva as a daytime soap opera star until her soap's character was unceremoniously killed off.

Kelly Ripa was annoying, and her character unlikeable. Faith Ford wasn't much better. The constant fighting really made it hard to root for this angry relationship.

It also had on set drama as they fired the oldest daughter played by Nicole Paggi. She was great as the only fun character. For seasons 2 & 3, they replaced her with Megan Fox. Sadly, she may have the looks, but at that stage she couldn't act her way out of a paper sack.

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 absolutely love this show! Every episode is hilariously awesome! I think Kelly does an amazing job of being Faith, she is so great to watch, and very funny. Not saying Faith Ford isn't - she's an amazing actress too! One of ABC's finest shows in my opinion. I have to say, Sydney isn't very convincing as a 14 year old though (or whatever she's meant to be). The old Sydney was played by a 25 year old, and it is so obvious, but she doesn't ruin it that much, and she is a great actress, though I prefer the new Sydney. Some of the best, funniest lines I've heard have come from this show, it's the sort of show that if you're feeling down or bored just switch it on and you're instantly smilie again!