SMILF

You won’t spend long dwelling on the title, but you’ll want to stick with this story.

Three episodes in, I am charmed by Shaw’s way of sketching her character, Bridgette Bird, in brazen strokes of absurdity and delicate gestures of woe. ... Shaw proves herself a fantastically nimble performer, by turns tough and impish.

Season two has moments that are moving, raw, and imaginatively conceived. But sometimes, Shaw tries too aggressively to be edgy or darkly clever. The Weinstein evocations are one example of that.

It’s an admirable portrait of a character in a social class that’s underrepresented on TV, but it’s more depressing than entertaining. The struggle is real--but it’s not funny.

An intriguing yet contextually challenged new dramedy. ... There’s little about "SMILF" that distinguishes it from a raft of similar shows that have come and gone — and will keep coming and going.

While there’s much to like about SMILF, its praiseworthy elements are pieces that fail to fall together into a cohesive whole.

Frustrating series that has promise but no payoff. And that series title. Seriously?