Newlyweds: The First Year

The Newlyweds premiere show is pretty engaging--especially without the fake fights and forced drama.

The sincerity of the enterprise is in inverse proportion to its fun. [13 May 2013, p.49]

At least in the early stages, though, the show feels reasonably legitimate, and introduces us to characters who are neither appalling nor boring.

Instead of mining the opportunity to expand its view of a meaty topic, Newlyweds falls back on the sort of bad habits that can ruin a relationship (made-for-TV or otherwise), and far from being fabulous in its design, has instead recycled Bravo’s same old pattern.

Spontaneity is scripted; hopes and dreams are meant to be crushed; the woeful are exalted; characters are unsympathetic.