Odd Mom Out
Season 2 M-Net Edge (*102) 19:10 & 19:30 Comedy
When it comes to perfect TV moms, Jill Weber (Jill Kargman) is anything but that on sitcom Odd Mom Out (2015-current). She’s a fictionalised version of Jill Kargman, who’s also the show creator and executive producer. Jill isn’t society’s idea of the homemaker living the perfect life and it’s something Jill the actress has first-hand experienced of, drawing inspiration from her real life with tech businessman husband Harry Kargman and their kids Ivy, Sadie and Fletch. “I never felt like I fit in with the other moms. I didn’t do cut-up grapes in ziploc bags. I always wore black and had spit-up on all my clothes,” she laughs.
The 42-year-old felt like a “momzilla” next to all the perfect housewives in New York’s posh Upper East Side where they live, so Jill set out to reassure her family that it’s okay to be who they are. Her comic novel Momzilla (2007) gives a candid account of her battles with conformity as a mom and led to Odd Mom Out, which Jill says “is an affirmation that parenting anxieties are universal and – most importantly – that not every mom ‘has it together’”.
Jill cast herself as, well… herself and she fits the bill. But she’s no Amy (Mila Kunis) in 2016 comedy film Bad Moms, which also centres on adapting to parenting ideals. In season 2, Jill has a supportive husband (Andy, played by Andy Buckley) by her side, unlike Amy. Where Amy has friends who really don’t have their lives together, Jill’s friend Vanessa (KK Glick) and sister-in-law Brooke (Abby Elliot) are totally in control and are always there with advice. Plus, Jill isn’t as fussed as Amy, which shows on Odd Mom Out. As Jill says, “I do my own thing. I’m not an outsider. I have one foot in [she’s besties with Gwyneth Paltrow] and one foot out. There’s nothing mean-spirited about the show.”