The Mom Crowd

Last night, ABC premiered its newest sitcom, “In the Motherhood“, starring Cheryl Hines, Megan Mullally, and Jessica St. Clair.  More than a year ago, I heard about this show when it was a web series starring Chelsea Handler and Leah Remini, which apparently had a decent fanbase.  I have also heard about how they take real-life stories from real-life moms and use them in their plotlines.   I was interested in seeing how this would all play out!

Hines plays Jane, a single working mom, whose daughter Sophie is a sweet little baby.  Her primary plotline was how she wondered if her third date with a co-worker was going to constitute sex.  There were a few workplace scenes with little jabs about mommies who “bring their private life into the office” – in Jane’s office, it’s a no-no.   There was a subplot about a sexual harrassment seminar that seemed incongruous with the rest of the story. 

Jane’s sister Emily (played by St. Clair, pictured), is the “perfect mom” in an interracial marriage.  Her children are named Bill and Esther, which I thought was kinda funny – just ’cause it’s funny to hear a teacher say, “You need to come get Bill now.”  Little kids with grown-up names crack me up.  That’s really all that I found funny, though.  Emily’s arc revolved around how the charade of Santa Claus is actually a lie.  Since Emily vows never to lie to her kids, she pulled them aside and said, “Santa is a made up story.”  The kids’ faces crestfallen, Mullally’s character (the quirky Rosemary) takes their picture with a camera phone, declaring, “I’m gonna go post this on the blog.”  (Okay, that’s actually a little funny.)  Emily & hubby deal with the aftermath of this decision – cue chaos in the classroom when Bill crushes every child’s innocence (debunking myths about Santa, the tooth fairy, princesses, etc.)  Ultimately, Emily decided it wasn’t worth it, and concocted a scheme to reinstate the Santa myth into her kids’ lives.  Jane said, “Look at my little sister, lying to her kids!”  Rosemary replied, “I know.  Now she’s just a normal mom.”  (Does this seem like familiar territory?  See The Mom Crowd’s discussion about Santa from last December!)

Meanwhile, childless Rosemary gets the convoluted idea to fake a pregnancy to get the perks – which, in this show, include cutting in public lines, buying cute maternity shirts, going to outdoor yoga, getting free stuff from people, and making 20 new pregnant friends who throw you a shower, all in one week!  (I guess Rosemary is a really well-off person who doesn’t work, kinda like another character Mullally used to play…)  Rosemary defended herself with the argument that “a pregnant woman in our society has been elevated to the status of a goddess!”  Of course, the ruse didn’t last long, and no one’s feelings were really hurt, since all of her new friends were just nameless background characters.   I just wonder: what person actually does this in reality?  (Apparently someone, since the stories are from real people.)

Overall, the show struck me as trying too hard to be cute.  The three lead roles came off like caricatures - Emily is sickeningly perfect – Jane is all Sex-and-the-City with a baby as an accessory – Rosemary is just background noise.  I like the idea of incorporating real moms’ anecdotes into the writing, but the result is a series of loosely connected sketches rather than a cohesive plot.  There is no laugh track, either, so there was nothing to cover up the fact that most of the punchlines fell flat.  Bummer, ’cause mom stories are genuinely funny, and should be made funnier in a sitcom.   (Interesting new tidbit:  reports just in that the Writers’ Guild of America requires the story-submitting moms online be paid for their ideas, which means real-mom ideas will probably no longer be used.  At least, that’s how I understand it.)

The most surprising part of watching “In the Motherhood” was seeing SNL vet Horatio Sanz play Jane’s “manny”.  Dude lost 100 pounds – I didn’t even recognize him.  I had to imdb him to make sure I was seeing the credits correctly.  He looks amazing, and his comic timing was spot-on.  He was the best part, in my opinion.

Did you see the premiere?  What did you think?  Do real-life mom stories translate well to t.v. land?  Does this show stand a chance at being a success?