2 BROKE GIRLS Review: Fall TV 2011 [Worth Watching?]
Yesterday I watched two women-centered shows, neither of which I had very high hopes for, because of their situations: THE PLAYBOY CLUB, which is set in the 60s, at the Playboy Club in Chicago, and 2 BROKE GIRLS, which is set in a diner in contemporary New York.
Well, I was totally right about THE PLAYBOY CLUB, for reasons I’ll let Debra Goykhman explain in her review, but I was pleasantly surprised by 2 BROKE GIRLS.
Overview: Two waitresses from two different worlds (one working class, who needs two jobs to get by and the other, the newly poor daughter of a Kenneth Lay-like fraudster). The show was created by Michael Patrick King (SEX AND THE CITY) and Whitney Cummings — the star of WHITNEY (which I’ll be reviewing in this spot later in the week).
What I Liked: Well, I thought the show would be all rich (bad) vs. poor (good), but it has a startling and quite refreshing element of woman empowerment. Though the two main characters are class-opposed and snarky with each other, they’re both three-dimensional, (gasp!) actually seem to like each other, and (double gasp!) actually listen to each other. Sadly, I’m straining hard to remember the last time I saw female friendship depicted this way on a sitcom. Also, don’t drop dead of shock, but as it turns out, this is a show about two women who develop concrete career and financial goals and then attend to them over the course of the series. It was so nice to see a situation, where wealth accumulation wasn’t all a matter of luck, but ingenuity and hard work that we can actually see in action.
What I Didn’t Like: There were quite a few stale jokes, but I remember THE BIG BANG THEORY pilot having the same issue. It’s hard to do a bunch of set-up and pull off jokes at the same time.
Diversity Report
People of Color? 2 Ancient Garrett Morris plays the diner’s cashier and the diner’s owner is played by an Asian actor. They’re both there purely for the jokes, and there are no women of color.
Report Card
Show B+ Diversity C
Worth Watching?
Definitely, especially if you’re in your 20s. I can’t emphasize enough how nice it was to see women being smart and ambitious about money.
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