Show: Worst Week (CBS)
Episode: “Pilot” – Series Premiere (Season 1)
Premiere Date: Monday, September 22nd, 2008
Rating: 1.0 out of 4 Stars
Quick Synopsis: Murphy’s Law in action isn’t all that funny.
Long Synopsis: A guy has got his girlfriend pregnant and they are planning on getting married. They set out to tell her parents over dinner, but things just always seem to go wrong for him when he is around them. His attempts to make it to dinner and subsequently make-up for not making it result in multiple misunderstandings and bad things happening to him.
Review: Worst Week is pretty bad. The premise is that whatever can go wrong, will go wrong for Sam Briggs. Mainly, when he is around his potential future in-laws.
Kyle Bornheimer, who you may recognize from appearances on shows like Breaking Bad and Jericho, plays Briggs. Erinn Hayes (The Winner, Kitchen Confidential) plays his girlfriend. Nancy Lenehan (My Name Is Earl, Married to the Kellys) and Kurtwood Smith (That ’70s Show) play her parents.
Smith does get a couple of good lines, but he is pretty much playing a version of Red Foreman. But, that was it on the comedy front.
The premise sounds like it has potential, yet it falls apart quite quickly. None of the bad things that happen to Briggs even elicits one laugh. Mostly, cause you see many of them coming.
Comedy is built on misdirection. Taking you down a path where you think you know where you’re going, only to be dropped off at another destination. Unfortunately, that other destination is readily apparent long before you get there on Worst Week.
Even if they were funny, having multiple things go wrong for him in each episode is going to be difficult to maintain for the long-term. I mean, how many bad things can you have happen to him before it gets old?
I have a policy of giving new shows at least three episodes before pronouncing final judgment, but it has to at least show a glimmer of potential to get those subsequent viewings. There wasn’t even a glint.
Overall, if you’re looking for something funny after Two and a Half Men, you won’t find it here. You’ll have to wait a couple of weeks for the return of Samantha Who? on ABC, which will play in the same time period. The rest of the competition is One Tree Hill on The CW, Prison Break on FOX and Heroes on NBC.
Worst Week premieres tonight, Monday, September 22nd on CBS.
I have to disagree with you on this one. I was howling with laughter by the end of the 22 minutes! Perhaps because I’m cursed with the klutz gene? Not that I’ve ever showed up somewhere in a giant diaper (you know, as an adult), but it’s a constant vigil not to have something like that happen to me. :P
You’re right, it wasn’t all that funny. But I do disagree that it had no redeeming value. I thought the scene with the (apparently) dead body, and the wife going into hysterics was pretty good. I also wonder, though, how they’re going to keep this up for a whole SERIES? I’ll probably still give it the usual 3 viewings before coming to a final conclusion.
I love worst week!! I think it’s very funny and relaxing. My son and I wait for it to come on every week. I’m hoping they do keep the series and extend the plot into after the baby’s born and just run with it. I’d help them write it if need be. I give it a 4!!
Julie, Glad you found something for you to enjoy with your son, but I wouldn’t bet on it coming back for another season. But, you never know.