Men Behaving Badly
I missed the season premiere of this show, when they married off Kevin and brought in the new roommate. I came in on the next episode, where we're just supposed to ADJUST to the fact that the show has practically a WHOLE NEW CAST. They gave the situation a small nod in the beginning of the episode with a joke about "Shep from ER" living with Jamie and Shep's girlfriend being "Mallory from Family Ties." So okay I guess.
But things are different. For starters, Jamie's new roommate, "Steve," is a big dull dud. He's like, a pretty boy or something, I guess. I mean, I don't think he's good looking, but I can see how Hollywood would think so -- and think that putting some hunky guy into the show would get the ladies to watch. As if we're not clever enough to like the show on its own merits.
And I like the show. Or, at least, I liked the show. I think Rob Schneider of SNL fame is hilarious, and they really let him be his most weird, obnoxious self on the show -- a smart move, for corporate suck-ups at NBC. Heh-heh. And Ron Eldard from "ER" was good as The Other Guy, who was despicably lovable in his own ways. Plus -- and I don't care what anyone says -- I really thought Justine Bateman was perfect in that role as Kevin's bored, slightly repelled girlfriend.
But seeing this new episode, I felt like when Paul Buchman discovered Murray the dog had done his business on the bathroom floor on "Mad About You" -- all he could say was, "What did you do?" And that's how I feel about the changes to "Men." What did they do? It's all wrong now. For instance:
Steve the new roommate is a big dud, as I stated before. They kept the whiny girl across the hall and added on a girlfriend for her -- I am not impressed. Other than having red hair and obscenely large boobs, I don't see the point with this cast member. She's not funny -- she doesn't even have enough charisma to be slightly interesting onscreen. I wouldn't be surprised to find out she's someone's niece. They're pairing her up with the new roomie Steve and that's all boring, too. The highlights could come from the storyline with Jamie, but guess what -- they changed that too.
Rob Schneider has clearly been told to tone it down from the powers that be. And heck, if someone dangled the big paychecks these guys get in front of ME, I'd probably tone it down too. But it makes the show worse. Instead of being Jamie the nutty, obnoxious, weird guy, he's Jamie the not- all-that-weird guy. The strangest thing they had him doing was lactating milk from his nipples (which was making me nauseous), and that was only because he was getting paid to be a human guinea pig (hello, cliches!). Other than that, the girl across the hall kept telling him she was afraid that he would "do something weird" when he asked her to dinner, but he never did. So that's like supposed to make him weird, that she calls him weird? Yah.
I'm a little sad about it all, but then again, it's one less show I have to make sure I'm home to see. Oh, well.