2 Broke Girls: Season 2
“2 Broke Girls: Season 2” follows the continuing struggles of a pair of misfit waitresses, eking out a meager existence while finding themselves on wild adventures. I'd only watched the show sporadically, generally to negative effect, but always heard through word of mouth that I wasn't giving the show enough of a chance.
Well, I watched most of Season 2, and I've got to say: Maybe this just isn't my kind of show.
Max (Kat Dennings) and Caroline (Beth Behrs) are the leads. They're a perfectly mixed duo in only the way sitcoms can provide. Naughty and nice, rich and poor, cynical and optimistic — two boiled-down personalities made to contradict each other in predictable ways in any given scenario. They burn with the distilled essence of the lousiest sitcom characters. Nothing is terribly special or interesting about them. To be fair, the actresses do the best they can in the roles with which they've been saddled. But they're not given much to do or much meaningful character progression.
So what? I'm expecting a drama out of a sitcom? I know it's unfair, but there have been plenty of really great sitcoms that do double duty as dramas. This isn't one of them. Why judge it?
Because the comedy in this show is equally underwhelming, if not at times downright cringe-inducing. There's potty humor to spare, which I don't honestly mind. What I do mind is the reliance on pop-culture references that aren't clever. Or the one-note supporting cast characters whose sole purpose is to spout out-of-left-field one-liners. Or the absurd laugh track that begs, begs, begs the audience to find something hilarious in a poorly set-up "golden showers" gag.
I think "2 Broke Girls" is simply a lousy sitcom. Lousy characters, lousy comedy.
But then, I may simply have higher standards or sitcoms. The genre has never been high on my list of shows to watch when I come home at the end of the day. To be honest, I feel the same way about “2 Broke Girls” as I do “Two and a Half Men” and “The Big Bang Theory.” They're all about level in my eyes. If you enjoy those shows — and seeing as millions do, it's not much of a stretch — you'll probably find plenty to enjoy in “2 Broke Girls.”
Like I said. It's not my thing.
Tally ho.