How do you live with your parents for the rest of your life? One television program which may offer a clue is the mysterious, cryptically-titled How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life) (Eleven, 9pm).
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I like shows where they put part of the title in parentheses, as if the producers left it to the very last second to decide what the title would be, and the network wouldn't let them change it for real, but allowed them to add the brackets as a compromise.
The show, which for convenience we'll call HTLWYPFTROYL, or maybe just ''How To'', is one of those that starts off with a strong, well-defined central premise that will quickly become restrictive and confining for the writers if it makes it to a second season. There would have been a lot less ''How To'' about ''How To'' if it had been a hit - successful shows always loosen up and lose their commitment to the conceit, like Seinfeld gradually phasing out the stand-up bits. Of course it wasn't a hit, so treasure these episodes, kids - they're all you're gonna get.
Where did it go wrong? Was it the premise? Was it the cumbersome title? Was it the way it told you who characters are at the start with wacky cartoony captions, to show it's hip and self-aware and stuff? It can't have been the cast - Sarah Chalke stars as the single mum moving back in with her parents, while her mum is Elizabeth Perkins and her dad is Brad Garrett, moving on from being the victim of parental atrocity on Everybody Loves Raymond to become the perpetrator.
I think maybe the show's failure was just because it's not that funny. I mean it's likeable, and pleasant, but there's something about the shenanigans that feel tired and played-out. The parents are embarrassing. The ex-husband is an idiot. The relationship with the parents helps shed light on the protagonist's own struggled with motherhood. The embarrassing parents turn out to not be so bad after all. It's a mechanical sitcom striving with might and main to figure out how to be more like Modern Family. But at least we learn an important lesson at the end of the episode, and isn't that what comedy is all about?
Of course it's not. In fact, comedy is all about subjectivity - one man's funny is another man's The Wedge. For example, some people can't stand the thought of Tom Cruise in a screwball action-comedy, which is probably why Knight and Day (Nine, 8.30pm) is not on any all-time box office megahit lists. But if you can put aside the baggage the disciple of Xenu carries wherever he goes, it's not a bad brand of brainless fun that he and Cameron Diaz bring to this rather disposable blockbuster.