Are You There, Chelsea?

I was also bummed with this show. I was expecting Chelsea Handler to be the main character, but Laura Prepon is. I think Laura can be funny, but they need to chill out with the sexual innuendos. Sex talk ALL. THE. TIME. is not that funny. This was the second pilot I watched this week and all it was about was sex. After awhile, it becomes tasteless. Writers, can you not come up with anything original?

The character Nikki, I believe her name is Natasha Leggero, is completely annoying, not funny. She was in the short-lived Free Agents and played the same type of annoying character. I think her appearances on the show could grind it into the ground even more.

This should could have potential, but without more of Chelsea Handler acting like herself, I don't see it happening.

Chelsea Newman (Laura Prepon) is struggling to get her life in order. When she gets a DUI, it's not the drinking but the driving she's cutting out. She and her friend Olivia (Ali Wong) move in with Dee Dee (Lauren Lapkus) whose apartment is within walking distance to her job at the bar.

This is suppose to be based on Chelsea Handler's life and her book. Her drunken exploits may be funny in book form but as a traditional bodied sitcom it never worked. In the show, she plays Chelsea's straight-laced religious sister Sloane which becomes annoying. I think Prepon was miscast. In the 70s Show, she's the straight laced mommy character of the group. She's wrong for this and the group never gels. Honestly, it never had much of a chance but bad writing really meant it had no chance at all. Laura Prepon is strangely out of place. Lauren Lapkus has the quirky best friend down. The rest of the gang is just unlikeable. Jake McDorman's charm is not there. The show doesn't work.

All I want to know is why? Chelsea, you are better than this, almost anything is better than this. I never thought I would see the day that Chelsea Handler/her life would be as funny as getting a flat tire on the highway. I am a die hard Chelsea Handler fan, don't get me wrong. I have read all her books, watched her other shows, but she managed to completely lose me on this one. While some of the jokes were funny, Laura Prepon just doesn't cut it as the boozy, witty, and offensive Chelsea. If Handler actually played herself the show would probably be just as hilarious as any one of her best selling books. Shame on you casting director for picking the wrong actress, and shame on you Chelsea for letting this happen.

Sincerely, Disappointed

I liked that girl on "That 70s Show." But in this show, she acts just like herself. She has Chelsea Handler's flat tone down (because it's her own tone as well) but it's like she's trying to be so cool and hard. She doesn't exhibit any of Handler's happy-go-lucky, chuckling, self-deprecating crassness. I'm watching this week's episode (01x08). She just said, "Wiggling, my friend. Wiggling." The real Chelsea would totally say that, but not the way that girl did. Sorry I don't know her name. This could be a lot better if she had the character down a little better. I dunno, it's just disappointing when we love the real Chelsea so much.

I guess many of the negative reviewers have never heard of exposition. The first episode is expected to be a little light on jokes because it requires characters, settings, and backgrounds to be explained. The supporting cast is a bunch of circus freaks, which is a plus. The jokes Chelsea bookended on the end of the scenes for obligatory exposition were all very good. While it's too early to make an early good or bad conclusion (in spite of other reviewers' predeterminations), I'm definitely interested.

If anything, Are You There, Chelsea? could end up killing Whitney (a brutally unfunny show that's trying to be Friends...again) because it's actually funny. Hopefully, Whitney won't kill this show by preceding it.