Cynical Cinema

I was very surprised when I started watching Caroline In The City. That show was actually GOOD! Like, funny and witty and GOOD! Why did I remember it differently? Was it because my mom watched it, and I assumed everything my mom watched was lame? Perhaps. Although I think it is more likely that it was a romantic-comedy-TV show, and that in itself was enough to drive me nuts when I was eight and this show first hit the air. Eight year olds HATE romantic comedies. But the show was actually GOOD. It’s no classic, but it certainly exceeded my expectations.

Lea Thompson is Caroline, a cartoonist who writes a syndicated comic strip (Caroline In The City). For all intents and purposes, she is the Sarah Jessica Parker character from Sex And The City, only with a comic strip instead of a column. In fact, this show is virtually the same show. There are two main differences. One is that there are two women and two men in the central roles, instead of four women. And the other is that Caroline wasn’t as painfully self-satisfied as Sex. Where Sex seems to believe it is incredibly clever, and telegraphs it’s “smart” dialogue from miles away, Caroline seems a little less smug. Of course, Caroline is flawed, and obsessive, and neurotic and flaky. All the characteristics of…every central character in every sitcom ever.

The other characters are all played by good actors too - Eric Lutes as Del, her on-again-off-again boyfriend who is (like so many characters in so many sit-coms) obsessed with his hair. Amy Pietz as Annie, her across-the-hall neighbour (a common sit-com character) who is (like so many other sit-com characters) a total slut. In fact, the only character who doesn’t come across as though he came from a sit-com- character stencil kit is Richard, played by Malcolm Gets. Caroline’s colorist, he is the one person in this series that elevates it from totally run-of-the-mill to being actually good. The closest character I can think of to Richard in any other sitcom would be Matthew (Andy Dick) in Newsradio. But then, Richard is Matthew with a hard edge, a bitter personality, a caustic wit and a scathing vocabulary. OK, he’s nothing like Matthew. He just looks a little like Andy Dick in this series. (Sorry, Malcolm Gets).

Really, upon watching this show again, I realized it shouldn’t be good. It should be trite, painful and run-of-the-mill at best. But with Richard holding down the fort, and the better-than-average actors playing the other cliched parts, Caroline in the City is actually good. Seriously. The First Season comes out today, August 12th, from Paramount Home Entertainment.