One Big Happy

Lizzy (Elisha Cuthbert) and Luke (Nick Zano) are lifelong best friends. She's an uptight lesbian and he's a charming womanizer. They follow up on a pledge to have a child together. Before she tells him that she's pregnant, he announces that he has met the love of his life and plans to marry the British Prudence (Kelly Brook) who needs help to stay in the country.

These are perfectly workable comic actors but they are given the broadest and most cheapest of material. I like Cuthbert but she's playing slightly against type as uptight. It doesn't always work but I do like the attempt. Zano is a beautiful man with loads of charm. Brook has two big assets and her wild big personality do grow on me. The biggest problem is that the writing is groan inducing most of the time. The friend characters are boring. If the writing isn't so bad, the actors could have salvage something.

I really enjoyed this show, and no, I'm not being paid to say that. I love the characters, the dialogue has plenty of snap, crackle, and pop, and the producers of Smallville, among other shows, owe Kelly Brock an apology for writing such a blah character for her that American audiences didn't get to see what a charismatic presence she can be. I enjoyed the stories and storylines not just because they were interesting in and of themselves, not just because it was nice to see lesbian characters in stories that neither ignored their identity nor treated it as something inherently different from all the other situations that are mined for comedy, but because they're not the same old sitcom storylines we've seen over and over and over.

Also, I want pretty much everything in Prudence's wardrobe, especially the dresses, especially the dress in the pilot with the pink print. Prudence included would be nice.

I watch a lot of TV... everyone is different.. But in my honest opinion, anyone rating this a 8 out of 10 or higher, had to be paid or have something to lose. I think you could give it a 5 out of 10 for being a nice person.

For me, to started off slow. By half way through, I was looking for something else. I just couldn't find this funny and not sure how it will last. The plot is just so so... I think I semi chuckled just once. Having the background laughs for each scene is so misleading. And the one girl with the British accent? I think it's being forced into the show too much and for me, was actually annoying.

Don't waste your time on this one.

There are positives to this show: the energy, the look of the show, decent cast (except the male lead, Nick Zano is a good straight man in other sitcoms, but terrible when allowed to emote)

His performance and the embarrassingly piped-in laugh-track, and 'woo' track, and the writing is corny. So far, of the post 'Happy Endings' alum, this is the worst. Marry Me and Weird Loners are far superior. Benched was even a little better than One Big Happy. New Girl with Marlon Wayans Jr, doesn't really count as he left the show and returned to it. The best of these don't rely on the fake laugh track. I'm starting to loathe Big Bang Theory too - which relies too heavily on it.

All in all, the gags, as quirky and loud as they are, don't work. But there are worse shows.

Elisha Cuthbert is a star, but this character is poorly conceived and poorly written. I'd love to see her in something with smarter writing. It's not too late to bring back Happy Endings, is it? The other characters don't give us much to latch on to. Nick Zano is white bread. Kelly Brook seems to be acting with her boobs. Meanwhile, I'm not a fan of laugh tracks in general, but I find this one particularly loud and annoying to the point of distraction. I'd love to see Elisha Cuthbert in something with smarter writing. Is it too late to bring back Happy Endings?

One Big Happy appears to have been hastily conceived and dashed off. After watching 2 eps, it's off my list.