Imaginary Mary

The show is OK, but nothing Mary does or says anymore is funny. Most of her lines these days are like "way to go!" or "woo who!" - what would make the show great is if Mary was a total nutcase and made Alice's life a living hell.

There are funny moments that come from the interaction between Alice and the family though.

I do not usually have much to say about live-action film and TV because I can remember what I see in animation easier, but I will say what I can about this. Imaginary Mary had a very cool and creative idea - a live action-CGI animation hybrid where Alice's imaginary friend returns from her childhood to help her date a divorced dad of three kids. I am disappointed that so many people didn't like this show in its inception. It was nowhere near the worst sitcom I ever saw, but ABC had so little faith in this show that they cut its original 13-episode order down to 9. I think I know why, though. I always liked Imaginary Mary, but one problem I always had with it, one problem that made it hard for me to remember what actually happened in the episodes, was that I can't remember what Mary actually contributed to the plot in each episode. Mary only gets a few scenes in each episode, and every so often she comes up to give Alice some dating advice or other stuff that leads to the conflict or solves it. Mary was funny in most scenes that she had, but now I do not blame ABC for wanting to get rid of this show so quickly if the plots didn't need Mary at all. It is hard to find a good execution for this strange kind of stuff. When the 2015 book The Rest Of Us Just Live Here doesn't know how to make a story about the non-magic kids in a magic world interesting, you realize why no one else does it. Actually, Powerless knew how to make that interesting: by having the DC superheroes or supervillains affect the plots of the "Powerless" people, and that worked out pretty well, so I don't know why that show didn't take off either, but at least I know what makes it better than Imaginary Mary. I do not know where I can find episodes of Imaginary Mary or Powerless nowadays, since it was nearly three years since the last time Imaginary Mary was reviewed here and they are far from the 52-episode syndication minimum, but I really would love to see both of them again to see if they are worthy of becoming a cult classic. Speaking of cult classics, I am very sorry Freaks and Geeks did not work out for NBC. Trying to be a full-hour drama with a comedic setup did not mix.

On paper, the show's premise turned me away but I found myself watching ten minutes of it and not turning it off. Mary is more of the voices in the main character's head, a la JD's voice overs in Scrubs. I hate to compare the two shows but that is the heart of Imaginary Mary- an insecure character like Scrubs. Give it a chance, you will probably be surprised.

I was watching TV one night and saw the preview of this show and I was interested in the previews and I gotta say that I was not disappointed in the least with the show it's hilarious and heartwarming Mary is terrific and hilarious I gotta say though I wouldn't recommend the show to super small children due to the fact that Mary can be a bad influence she curses and uses sexual jokes but I consider her bad behaviour hilarious just watch with impressionable kids and you should be fine it's hilarious

Cute idea but needs better writers and directors! Was looking forward to the show because I love Jenna Elfman but it goes beyond funny to stupid/ridiculous. I believe it could work with more imaginative writers. Doubt it lasts. I may watch one more episode just to see if they get it together but from what I've seen so far(one episode), not optimistic. I was even disappointed with Jenna's over the top silliness. Even Mary could be more "human". Although she is the title character she hardly seems relevant since her advice is usually bad or ignored... so what's the point? As it is, TWO THUMBS DOWN!