"Worst Week": And after the first week?

Sam is having a bad week. In fact, you could say he's having his worst week since the last time he went to visit his prospective in-laws and accidentally set their house on fire.

Well, the show is called "Worst Week," after all, and as you might guess, Sam's fortunes aren't going to get any better next week, either. Although it will be hard to top what we see in the first half hour of tonight's pilot -- comically bad driving and ill-timed phone calls and impolitic utterances and people stepping in the wrong place at the wrong time and even a man mistaken for a corpse. "Worst Week" is Rube Goldberg meets Murphy's Law meets the parents. And it's hysterical.

After I was done splitting my sides, though, I had a question for this bright new comedy on CBS: How can things possibly be this bad -- I mean good -- next week?

I suppose we can leave that question for later. For now, this is a pretty ambitious effort by the one network that has managed to keep the traditional situation comedy alive on Monday nights by not taking too many chances. "Worst Week," in that sense, is a huge roll of the dice for CBS. It has no studio audience. It doesn't have many jokey-joke punchlines. And the humor builds up, so that the viewer's 22 minutes of undivided attention is required for the full effect. That's a quality "Worst Week" has in common with TV's classic sitcoms, especially "Seinfeld," which has been gone for a decade now (and which once did an entire episode backwards, for heaven's sake).

As the show begins, Sam -- played by Kyle Bornheimer, a comedic actor who just looks hapless -- is talking over with his pretty girlfriend Melanie (Erinn Hayes) their plan for that evening, when they are going to spring the news on her apparently hard-to-please folks that they are expecting a baby.

What becomes clear is that Sam's and Melanie's relationship could only happen on television. He doesn't deserve her in more ways than one. And she is absurdly forgiving of his disastrous decisions.

The details of Sam's last visit to her parents unfold amusingly. Seems everyone but him went out one night, so he decided to "surprise" them with a fire in the fireplace ... and that's when the family dog, thinking the strange man meant his masters harm, attacked.

Defending his actions once more, Sam says, "I'll ask again: Wouldn't you like to have come home to a blazing fire that night?"

"We did," responds Melanie, drily.

Going forward, "Worst Week" faces a couple of challenges: recreating tonight's slow-motion train wreck again and again, and plausibly (or with ironic unreality) allowing Sam to make it up over and over to Melanie and her folks played by Kurtwood Smith (Red on "That 70's Show") and Nancy Lenehan.

I don't know if they can pull it off, but I'm sure willing to watch them try.

Worst Week Premieres 8:30 p.m. CT on CBS (KCTV-5)

Comments

[sally]

I loved it- it had me screaming with laughter.

[shelly]

This was the funniest thing I've seen on TV in a very long time. Hilarious, fall off the chair funny.

[Jason]

This was awful Aaron. Not Cavemen awful but awful enough. Viewers agreed as ratings were low considering its timeslot. This show won't make November me predicts with Rules of Engagement returning sooner than originally predicted. Here's to Gary Unmarried not sucking so much.
-Jason

[Gregg]

You can tell you're watching something special when you see a set-up for a joke, KNOW it's a set-up for a joke, and then you laugh at the joke anyway.

Great, great stuff, and here's hoping they can keep it going for a full season.

[Glenn Reimche]

So bad, and worse, predictable. To mention it in the same breath as Seinfeld is the funniest joke of the show.

[Judy Buchman]

This is the funniest new show we've seen on TV in years! Even my 82-year old Mother said she laughed the entire show! I can't imagine what they will follow with each week to compare to the premiere show. What good writers they must have! Keep up the good work.

[sue]

I really liked this show, it was hysterical. Almost painful to watch because you just knew he was going to get jerked again and again...funny just the same. Hope they can keep the writing up :)

[Emme]

An absolute scream, the funniest show since Seinfeld. I hope the writers keep coming up with more great stuff because I won't miss an episode. Emme

[Profmox]

I didn't expect to like this show. My 25-year old daughter was visiting for dinner and decided to watch it on On Demand. Non-stop laughing out loud through the show's first 3 episodes. Give it a try and stick with it. Great cast, sharp writing. One of the funniest shows I've seen on TV in a long time.

[Charlene]

You're all pulling my leg, right? This was the most painful 1/2 hour of TV I have ever endured.

(until I saw Kath & Kim last week...how is it that we get the *TWO* worst sitcoms in broadcasting history in the SAME YEAR?!)

And the lead is HORRIBLE. He has none of the charm of, say, Doug Heffernan or Jim Noname (Belushi). If you're going to do the whole "fat loser with a hot wife" thaaang, he needs to have SOME redeeming quality.