Grumpy Llama Tee Vee Review

It isn't often that I venture into the realm of network tee vee, but I didn't really care at all about the football game last evening and instead sat down with the Missus to watch "The New Adventures of Old Christine." Mostly I was curious to see if Julia Louis-Dryfus looked likely to break the Seinfeld Curse.

Well. I didn't have any idea of the show's premise going in. Here's CBS's own description:

THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus ("Seinfeld") in a comedy about a divorced working mom who is successfully juggling the daily stresses of motherhood and her business, while maintaining her fantastic relationship with her ex-husband…until his young, new girlfriend enters the picture, instantly complicating her life. Christine Campbell has a busy life--after all, she's prone to taking NyQuil to get to sleep and leaving voicemail messages to herself in the middle of the night. But it's a good life: she owns a women's 30-minute workout gym, and her 8-year-old son, Ritchie (Trevor Gagnon), was just accepted into a posh private school where she encounters two snooty stay-at-home class moms, Marly (Tricia O'Kelley) and Lindsay (Alex Kapp Horner), who can't seem to grasp the concept that Christine actually works. Her 20-something slacker brother, Matthew (Hamish Linklater), lives with her and has an uncanny knack of getting Ritchie to do anything Christine can't. Also, she gets along with her charming ex-husband, Richard (Clark Gregg), even better than when they were married. But easy street is suddenly filled with a major pothole when Christine discovers that Richard has a new girlfriend: a young, nice, impossible-to-hate woman also named Christine…the "new" Christine (Emily Rutherfurd), and that doesn't sit very well with "Old Christine." Now, as Christine realizes that Richard is moving on with his life, it dawns on her that maybe it's time for her to take that same leap.

I suppose that massive familial dysfunction could be made hip and wacky, but really, this show just left a bad, bad taste in my mouth. (And that's not counting the appearance of Scott Bakula looking like he was wearing some kind of weirdo Rod Stewart wig.) Am I overreacting? Meb. And meb I'd have a different opinion if the writing were any better. After all, the characters on Seinfeld were all thoroughly unpleasant as well. One simply didn't care, however, because the comedy was done so deftly. But here? The characters are pathetic, the plot horrifying and the writing hag-ridden with every cheap social cliche known to Hollywood.

I couldn't tell from one viewing whether the Curse is still alive and well, but I certainly hope so.