Grid Effect

My apologies for a second consecutive late post. This one relates more to my boss being in Vegas so I showed up to work an hour late as a result, rather than a post Superbowl hangover. In my lethargic stupor last night, I actually managed to watch Rules of Engagement, a new CBS sitcom that I learned about while watching the game on Sunday (It appears the network self-promotion still works on me).

The premise of the show is there is one worn down, semi bitter, middle-aged couple, who befriends a young, optimistic recently engaged couple that have a still single friend with no intentions of tying the knot. So yeah, it’s pretty much like every other couples oriented sitcom. The older couple of Jeff and Audrey (played by Patrick Warburton and Megyn Price) essentially hold nothing but contempt for each other as they offer advice to their nubile counterparts. Jeff never portrays a positive image of marriage to Adam (Oliver Hudson), and the concept, much like all of these shows, is the marriage is drains the life out of the husband and the wife is a preening harpy with little regard for how miserable she is making his life, mainly because she thinks he’s an idiot.

Needless to say, it’s a tired concept and offers up little in creativity, but Warburton gives a stellar performance playing Jeff. Most will remember him as Putty from Seinfeld as the king of the deadpan. He is almost as strong in this series, but unfortunately his performance isn’t enough to save it, it’s too redundant and I do not see much changing in ways of content. Despite Jeff’s obvious dismissive tone, Adam is constantly probing him with hopeful questions when clearly Jeff is never going to reply with anything encouraging. The entire dynamic is Hudson setting up Warburton for jokes, its like a poor mans Abbot And Costello.

The women on the show (particularly Audrey) counters her husbands protests or disobedience with threats of withholding sex or emasculating jabs about his manhood. Again: nothing new. Her protege, Jennifer, played by Bianca Kajlich delivers little else. She does pull off one decent line when at an art gallery with every main cast member, her husband sidles her while she is looking at a painting, he offers up some pretentious explanation about the deeper meaning of the painting she has been observing, and she replies, “I think a monkey got into the paint”. Why do I remember this one line so vividly? Because it was the only delivery that made me even grin from either female lead.

Which brings us to Russell, played by the David “I am in this for a paycheck” Spade. Russell is supposde to be the wild card in this show, he is what separates Rules of Engagement from being a carbon copy of Til Death on FOX. The leave little to the imagination of Russell’s attitude in the pilot. It opens with him berating Adam for getting engaged. And ends with him lying in bed with a dingy waitress (who moved from New York to Ohio to be an actress) that he met at the art gallery while on a date with Jennifer’s friend. While the waitress rambles incoherently post-coitus, David looks at the business card the blind date gave him and has a contemplating look in his eye, until the waitress arrives back in bed from getting a glass of water and they agree to one more round of sex.

I am not sure how much longer this series will be on the air, but they either need to put some heightners in Spades shoes or rethink the female casting decisions. He had face time with four different women last night (Jennifer, Audrey, the waitress and the date) and was eye to mouth with all of them. Jennifer and Audrey do not matter as there is no romantic overtones between him and the two, but is it feasible all these women are approving of him as a sexual partner if they could post him up in basketball? It’s nitpicking, but it was so noticeable I feel like it warrants mentioning.

All in all, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Which admittedly, isn’t saying much; but between Warburton’s delivery, and Spade always has decent potential (despite his diminutive stature) I would classify Rules as an above average sitcom. Does that mean I will continue to watch it? Of course not. But there is a certain type of American who enjoys this brand of television, for better or worse, I am not that type. So if the humorous studies of the disparities between men and women is your thing, I would recommend it. If you regularly read this website, I wouldn’t go within a mile of CBS on Monday night, because odds are the only time you tune into CBS are for Survivor (new season begins on Thursday) and/or sports.

More on Sunday night’s Extras later today.