USA TODAY International Edition
‘ One Big Happy’ looks more like one big mess
NBC’s latest comedy misses the mark
One idea does not a sitcom make.
One Big Happy, an amateurish bungle of a comedy, has a single idea that’s impossible to miss: The script hammers it home so strenuously, the writers must think we’re as dimwitted as their creations. Their main character, Lizzy, is a lesbian — “Big time!” as she screams in an opening scene that also informs us that she’s having a baby with her dunce of a best friend — before reminding us, a few more times, that she’s a lesbian. Thank you. I think we’ve got it. Ellen DeGeneres is a producer, but Happy comes from one of her show’s producers, Liz Feldman ( 2
Broke Girls). Girls is more offensive and equally witless, but at least it boasts actors who know what to do in front of a camera and a studio audience.
Happy is built around Elisha Cuthbert, whose previous sitcom,
Happy Endings, was shot like a movie. Both styles are capable of producing great comedies but require different skills, and Cuthbert’s performance is all braying and mugging and posturing, without a trace of heart or sense.
To be fair, Lucille Ball would have had trouble doing much with the material. Even if she could get you past the show’s single- minded focus, she’d still be stuck with such jokes as “I should have known I was gay when I named my cat Ellen.”
The setup is that roommates Liz and Luke ( Nick Zano) decide to have a baby together. And, of course, just as Liz becomes pregnant, Luke meets Prudence ( Kelly Brook), a free- thinking Brit whose body is the subject of much Happy discussion. Instant bond leads to instant marriage and to this Three’s Company for a new century, leaving you to wonder who thought we needed a new Three’s Company.
TV isn’t easy: Left without a comedy hit, NBC is trying desperately to move away from cult favorites such as Parks and Recreation to shows with broader appeal and a studio audience.
But people don’t watch formats, they watch shows, and those with something to offer beyond labored and artificial. You can’t just put “happy” in the title and hope for the best. If that’s the idea, come up with a better one.