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Review: TV Land's 'The Exes'

Donald Faison, Kristen Johnston and company go for deliberately retro laughs

By Alan Sepinwall Wednesday, Nov 30, 2011 4:53 PM

  • Critic's Rating C+
  • Readers' Rating B
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<p>Kelly Stables, Donald Faison, Kristen Johnston, David Alan Basche and Wayne Knight in "The Exes."</p>

Kelly Stables, Donald Faison, Kristen Johnston, David Alan Basche and Wayne Knight in "The Exes."

Credit: TV Land

In one of the few laugh-out-loud lines in TV Land's new sitcom "The Exes" (tonight at 10:30), we meet Eden, the pint-sized, sexpot assistant to divorce lawyer Holly. Eden is played by Kelly Stables, whom the Internet Movie Database very generously lists at 5' tall, and one of Holly's clients suggests that Eden "looks like someone threw a hot chick in the dryer."

 
"The Exes," like most of TV Land's inventory of deliberately retro comedies (starting with "Hot in Cleveland"), feels very much like someone threw a good sitcom in the dryer. It looks and sounds like the kind of genuine oldiest-but-goodies that rerun on TV Land and Nick at Nite – and has a cast filled with actors who appeared on those kinds of shows – but everything is smaller, including the laughter.
 
Holly (Kristen Johnston from "3rd Rock from the Sun"), it turns out, has a fondness for taking in strays, so she's rented out the apartment across the hall to two recent clients: playboy Phil (Donald Faison from "Scrubs") and couch potato Haskell (Wayne Knight from "Seinfeld" and "3rd Rock"). The two are getting along well, mainly by staying out of each other's way, until Holly gives them a new roommate in Stuart (David Alan Basche from USA's "The Starter Wife"), a touchie-feely oversharer whose first conversation with the guys involves setting up a chore schedule, and who likes to interrupt Phil's attempt to read the newspaper(*) at breakfast to ask, "Whatcha thinkin'?" (Phil: "I'm thinking I paid someone half my money to never hear that question again.")
 
(*) That's how retro the show is: a character Donald Faison's age reads the morning paper every day.
 
It is, essentially, "The Odd Couple,"(**) with Stuart as Felix, Phil as Oscar, and Haskell (who doesn't feature into a major plot in any of the three episodes I've seen) just there because someone must have worried it wouldn't look right to have two men of a certain age as roommates in 2011. (That, or TV Land execs were over the moon about his recurring role on "Hot in Cleveland.")
 
(**) On our podcast this week, Fienberg more interestingly posited that it's also "New Girl," only with David Alan Basche filling in for Zooey Deschanel. (The climax of the pilot even has Phil implausibly turning down a shot with a beautiful woman to rescue Stuart, whom he's just met, from certain humiliation.) Some "New Girl" detractors have argued that the only people who like the show do so because they're attracted to Zooey D, and while I disagree (and not just because I know a number of straight women and gay men who think it's funny), I couldn't help noticing that a similar set-up revolving around a character who's a middle-aged guy was considerably less enjoyable. Hmm...
 
"The Exes" isn't a particularly artful comedy, nor is it trying to be one. It just wants to remind TV Land's target demo of the kinds of shows they grew up watching, filled with familiar actors and familiar kinds of jokes. In the case of "Hot in Cleveland," the cast is gifted enough, and the writing just good enough, that it at least works as a kind of high-end margarine to the butter that is the TV Land rerun lineup. "The Exes" isn't quite on that level, but it's also not actively annoying in the way that previous "Cleveland" partners "Retired at 35" and "Happily Divorced" are. It's mediocre, but it's at least pleasantly mediocre. Everyone knows how to deliver a joke, the writers understand the inherent comedy that comes from putting the very tall Johnston opposite the very small Stables (though they come very close to overdoing the joke by having Holly date a jockey in the second episode), and as a young woman lacking both inhibitions and a filter, Stables makes a comic impression from more than her size.
 
At a press tour party back in the summer, Johnston was working the room, asking critics to watch later episodes, which she felt better reflected what the show could be. And in addition to the first two installments, TV Land also sent critics a copy of the sixth episode, guest-starring Paula Marshall (in a role that will feel familiar if you know her resume well). And it is, indeed, a notable improvement on earlier installments. It doesn't take it up to the level of the good NBC sitcoms from the '80s and '90s, but it's at least as good as (and in some cases significantly better than) the ones that tended to air at 8:30 and 9:30 after the ones we all remember well.
 
And given TV Land's ambitions, that's mission accomplished right there.
 
Alan Sepinwall may be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

 

Alan-sepinwall-sm
Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching
Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
Related Searches: The Exes, Donald Faison, Kristen Johnston, David Alan Basche, Wayne Knight, Kelly Stables

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  • Default-avatar

    Jon Smith

    David Alan Basche? Was David Alan Grier busy? I can't imagine he was

    November 30, 2011 at 6:06PM EST Reply to Comment
  • 9yearsold_talkback_profile

    klg19

    As soon as you described Stuart's character, I immediately thought "that sounds like New Girl." And I don't listen to the podcasts.

    Is that really Faison in that photo, by the way? It doesn't look anything like him!

    An interesting cast, but I think I'll pass...

    November 30, 2011 at 6:11PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    drewson

    I am one of those viewers who always stuck with NBC for the sitcoms at 8:30 and 9:30. I actually feel nostalgic for Up All Night moving to "must see TV" Thursday as Christina Applegate is returning to her former night when she was "Jesse"

    November 30, 2011 at 6:29PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    John

    When I try to remember the "8:30/9:30" sitcoms, the only one that really springs to mind is Just Shoot Me, which I remember watching quite a bit and enjoying in a pleasant, low-key way.

    Was Newsradio in one of those slots, too, or was that in the Tuesday block?

    November 30, 2011 at 8:57PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    Stan

    It's sad that as talented as Donald Faison is that he can't get something better.

    November 30, 2011 at 9:11PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    filaphresh

    How'd they get Donald Faison? He's been out of Scrubs for a year and half. Seems he shouldn't be that desperate already. Maybe he's trying to catch an up and coming trend after Hot in Cleveland, but I want better things to happen to Turk.

    November 30, 2011 at 11:20PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      filaphresh I swear Stan's comment wasn't there before I submitted mine.

      November 30, 2011 at 11:21PM EST
  • Default-avatar

    Joy from Cleveland

    I really like this show and hope that viewers are not too jaded by 'reality tv' to give it a fair chance. Some of the best shows take a few episodes to find their groove, but I laughed out loud throughout the first episode. I also watched the first few episodes of 'New Girl', and find the chemistry between the cast of 'The Exes' to be much better. I will keep watching, and appreciating the clean cut humor TV Land offers with this new show.

    December 1, 2011 at 1:01AM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    Jenny

    I gotta say people give Hot in Cleveland a lot of hype, but I can not get into it. I love Betty White, and I even live in the city of Cleveland but it's not funny at all to me. Without Betty White the show would likely be a failure. I've never watched Retired at 35, but Happily Divorced was at least watchable and made some improvement.

    As far as The Exes, so many people have been slamming this show. I saw nothing in this show that screamed atrocious. It's got problems of course, but I saw plenty of potential. It's only aired one episode but I already prefer it over Hot in Cleveland. People should be more patient with it.

    December 2, 2011 at 3:05AM EST Reply to Comment

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