Notes from the Underbelly

The trials of parenthood are familiar grounds for comedy and ABC's Notes From The Underbelly, which follows an expecting couple, tries to tread the same territory, but the only thing remarkable about Notes is how miserably it fails at it. There's no sign of originality to Notes as it wrings its premise dry of any laughs with bland jokes about pregnancy and motherhood repeated endlessly. Notes expects the humor to come from its theme of 'adventures from parenthood', but as it pushes that point with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, the jokes are too obvious to be funny. To its credit, it's not totally unbearable but it's hard to think of a reason to tune in when there's so many better ways to spend your time.

Please add a minus rating scale for this show because the current ratings system does not come close to indicating the level of the utter awfulness this show attains. To quote Edward Norton's character in Fight Club it feels like a "copy of a copy of a copy of a copy" and so on. The characters are parrots reciting poorly written jokes with seemingly no idea what they are actually saying. Tectonic plates have better comic timing and the blonde chick with glasses has played at least 3 separate manifestations of the same character all with increasing levels of failure. The creators/writers of this show should be brought in front of The Hague and tried for crimes against the art of storytelling. Their sentence: cancellation, oh wait that will probably happen anyway. Their sentence: banishment to writing for reality television.

I think this is a hilarious, honest, and funny show. No, it's not exactly highbrow, but c'mon...it's television! This reminds me of the BBC show "Coupling." I was also thinking that I like that these people look pretty "normal." The women aren't emaciated, the guys are cute but not in a cookie-cutter Hollywood way. I also like that they address the common myths, problems, ideas, situations and fears of new parents. I also find a lot of this pretty easy to relate to - I have the friend who is the crazy new mom (Julie) and the friend who is scared but excited about being pregnant (Lauren), and the cynical friend who will never have kids (Cooper). I'm not a laugh-out-loud at the TV kind of person, but I do find myself laughing out loud a lot at this show.

as new parents (we have a 4 year old and an 8 month old) and friends of a couple who JUST got pregnant, there are definitely a lot of moments that resonate with us ... my wife probably enjoys this a bit more than I do.

i can't help but finding myself comparing this to a "grown up" version of Friends (of which i was not a big fan) - maybe it is the three couple format (only two official, i know - if this thing plays out long enough, Cooper and the scruffy guy will hook up, count on it!) The main gal reminds me of Rachel, the very pregnant one Monica (think high school, fatsuit Monica) the scruffy guy is like Joey, and the main guy is Ross-like. Even the lawyer gal has Phoebe elements ...

anyway, there are some funny moments, a lot of annoying ones ... we'll probably tune in as long as it's on, but won't cry if it gets canceled.

At its best, it is mildly clever. Not funny or entertaining, but clever. At its worst, it is pretentious and canned. A lot of the dialog feels like dialog. People wouldn't talk this way, ever, except if they are a character on a TV show that is killing itself to be cool.

Random characters are thrown in to say things that people would never say, so that the characters can chime in with a witty retort. When comedy has to be forced in the first episode, well, you have to ask yourself where it is going to go from there.

There are some good actors involved, though some seem out of their league. (I wouldn't name them, that's rude.)

It's funny. At the Aspen Comedy festival, I heard the creator of "The Winner" say that everyone seems to think that single-camera shows are automatically cool. I love "The Office" and loved "Arrested Development", and like "My Name is Earl." This show does not compare.

Basically, I'll be surprised if this one comes back.