I Hate My Teenage Daughter

It's hard to know why a conventional sitcom turns out to be better than average, with some of the same appeal--mapcap and yet still warm and relatively gimmick-free--as the 1980s' "Kate & Allie."

The only fun comes from Pressly and Finneran, who are so likeable they almost overcome the overwrought action.

Having come up with an intriguing premise, co-creators Sherry Bilsing-Graham ("The New Adventures of Old Christine," "Friends") and Ellen Kreamer ("The New Adventures of Old Christine,") are either too timid or too hamstrung by network expectations to execute it.

It quickly devolves into borderline slapstick comedy that was old when the Three Stooges were doing it.

You're left with a show mothers and daughters can both hate.

The writing is so trite that when the teens balk in an upcoming episode at the idea of a Family Night (to which the ever-present ex-husbands are invited), we share their despair.

Women are as capable of writing a misogynist, soul-killing TV comedy as anyone else. Exhibit A: I Hate My Teenage Daughter, a shrieky nightmare.