2 Broke Girls

The girls' chemistry should keep the show breakdown free. [19 Sep 2011, p.59]

Like many sitcoms, 2 Broke Girls stretches a little to set up the premise, but once it gets there we're sold, mainly because the two lead actresses are funny and endearing with great chemistry.

This show goes for Broke with its snappy dialogue, occasionally crossing the taste barrier with its grotesque ethnic caricatures (the girls' Asian boss in particular). But the girls have great chemistry.

The odd-couple pairing is one of the oldest ones in the TV playbook, and the two mismatched waitresses in 2 Broke are good company, at least in the show's initial outing.

A good sitcom is much more likely to have started life with a bad pilot than a good drama, and there are little glimmers in each episode that suggest a much better show could come later. But those glimmers are much more obvious in 2 Broke Girls than in "Whitney."

It seems a missed opportunity: the premise of the spoiled rich kid and the sassy poor kid forced to team up is an old story that often works. But both Caroline and Max come across as prep school students who are slumming.

2 Broke Girls has its fair share of genuinely funny lines....But the program has plenty of eye-rollers, too.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

This show would be funny but for three things: the repugnant stereotypes, the incessant laugh track, and the relentless joke rate. Some do jokes hit, and there is a sweet central relationship, but the drawbacks tilt it so far in the other direction that the show just dies. And Sophie. God I hate her so much: "Hey everybody!" "Whoooooi!" No Sophie, just bugger off. Or Han, please put a trip mine on the front door next time she comes in.