Notes from the Underbelly

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.

There have been many vapid, watery attempts at an appealing comedy show in the past, and I'll sure there will be plenty more to come in the fall.

Luckily, this particular show is among the good batch. The humor is very consistent, and there's never a dramatic moment without a comical follow-up to compensate. It says to you 'Hm, even though it's obligatory that we must have these touching moments of overwrought sentiment, we can make up for that by immediately trailing this with an insanely witty bit, most likely to be delivered by the neurotic husband.'

It's clever, it's witty, and it possesses an pleasantly engaging title that screams for folks to give the name a double-glance, frown iffy-ly, say "Why, what is this 'Underbelly' you speak of?" and eventually (hopefully) succumb to their meddling curiosity and watch this show.

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.

There are very few comedies out there right now (I don't count "30 Rock" or "The Office" as comedies because they're...uh...not funny!) but this is a hidden gem. As more and more networks move away from the scripted comedy shows, it is nice to find one that actually makes me laugh out loud. Like most good comedies, it takes a situation that a lot of people can relate to (pregnancy) and makes fun of it in ways that hit the nail on the head and make me remember a lot of similar situations during the times when *my* wife was pregnant. A must for anyone who's ever been pregnant or is ever going to be, and who likes to laugh. I give this show an A+++.

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.