Review: The New Adventures of Old Christine

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So, there are many many things working against The New Adventures of Old Christine - the format is the awful sitcom formula of boring lighting, limited camera work, and laugh tracks - and I know that these things will be hard for many of my friends to overcome. I believe, however, that the cast (Julia Louis-Dreyfus was made for this role) and the writing (most of it) more than makes up for the format. I don’t even notice it, really. All I’m paying attention to is how weird Christine’s brother is and how brutally uncomfortable I get when she decides to be proactive and how refreshing it is that she has a realistic relationship with her ex-husband (they have trouble establishing boundaries after being together for so long, they both contributed to the demise of their marriage, they’re both actually ok people and they both love their son). I love how irrational, mean and spastic she gets when it comes to her ex-husbands new girlfriend, “new” Christine, but how, when she’s had time to think about it she tries to do the right thing. And then is always mean in the end. Her brother knows all of these horrendously embarrassing details about her sex life which illicit the best, most horrified looks from the actor who plays him - as if he’s tried his entire life to block out these memories but she just keeps piling on the reasons for therapy. She makes lots of mistakes, is constantly embarassing herself and desperately tries to control everything which only leads to her looking like an idiot. Basically, it’s the ultimate show for making women feel better about themselves. The thing is, I think, if the guys would give it a chance, they might find a lot to like about it themselves. It isn’t man hating. In fact, the men are generally the most calm and reasonable people in the show. And their reactions to her are always totally true - they don’t let her get away with anything - they call her on her craziness in a way that men don’t generally get to do. This is probably because I got made fun of for watching this show TWICE yesterday but, seriously, I think it deserves a try. But not the pilot. It’s not as good as the rest. The episodes with Andy Richter in particular are brutally excellent. Oh and Wanda Sykes is a comic genius though in season one, at least, she didn’t get as many lines as I would have liked to have seen.

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