I am – Hercules!!
A laughtrack sitcom from writer-producers Chuck Lorre and Mark Roberts (“Two And A Half Men”), “Mike & Molly” follows a couple of Overeaters Anonymous members, a fat cop and a fat 4th-grade teacher. It stars Billy Gardell (“Yes, Dear,” “My Name Is Earl”), Melissa McCarthy (“Gilmore Girls”), Katy Mixon (“Eastbound and Down”), Swoosie Kurtz (“Pushing Daisies”), Reno Wilson (“The Chronicle,” “Blind Justice”) and Tucker Albrizzi (“Big Time Rush”).
It’s about as funny as what I’ve seen of “Two and a Half Men,” and gets a lot of milage out of the likeable stand-up comedian Gardell, a fat guy who knows how to sell a joke. I can’t say the jokes are strong enough to make me watch, but I do judge this as likely the funniest of the new fall sitcoms.
USA Today says:
… As with most pilots, Mike lays out its themes in broad strokes — and while many of the weight jokes are very funny, there are a few too many of them. Still, what matters most for the show's future health is that it does not define Mike and Molly as "fat." They're nice, normal, relatable people who eat too much and want to eat less. …
The New York Times says:
… part love story, part self-help session, and it is not for everyone, meaning it is surely for no one who can quote whole chunks of dialogue from “30 Rock.” … What Molly would love, she explains in an Overeaters Anonymous meeting, is “to be able to walk into a nightclub without having every queen in the room leaping on me like I’m a gay-pride float.” Or, she might have added, without every size 4 looking at her as if she were a safari attraction. …
The Los Angeles Times says:
… Many of those gags are mechanical and flat, although they are delivered as though they were not. But when the leads are focused on each other, size no longer matters and the show flickers to life. (In love, one might say, one size fits all.) Gardell and McCarthy are appealing (and attractive) leads, and their reticent romance makes a refreshing change from the race to the bedroom that describes much of what passes on television for courtship. …
The Washington Post says:
… Gardell and McCarthy are fine (you may remember her from "Gilmore Girls" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm"), but the show is . . . will you kill me if I say too thin? …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
There's sweetness among the fat jokes … laughs with Mike and Molly, not at them. The pilot episode encourages viewers to laugh, too, with humorous dialogue that hits more than it misses. …
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
… There are a lot of fat jokes in "Mike & Molly." Unfortunately, all of them are easy, most of them are stupid and worse than anything is that they are spewed in what is being spun as a sympathetic look at people with eating problems. Except that's so transparently untrue as to be laughable - about the only one you'll find in "Mike & Molly." …
HitFix says:
… constantly at war over whether it wants to be laughing with or at its main characters. The "with" parts I like, and Gardell and McCarthy are charming. The "at" parts are nauseating. …
The Boston Herald says:
… Since “The Honeymooners,” sitcoms have featured petite women in love with big guys. Think “King of Queens” or “According to Jim.” “Mike & Molly,” the new sitcom from executive producer Chuck Lorre (“Two and a Half Men,” “The Big Bang Theory”), offers a welcome change. … As the season unfolds, the show should focus on Mike and Molly’s burgeoning relationship and less on their diets. The way Mike asks out Molly at the end of the episode is adorable. You might fall in love with this romance. …
The Boston Globe says:
… The potential for cringeworthiness is high, and the pilot sometimes falls on the wrong side of the line between self-deprecatingly comic and just plain mean. But there’s a real sweetness to the tentative romance brewing between Mike, the beat cop played by comic Billy Gardell, and Molly, an elementary school teacher (Melissa McCarthy). It helps that both actors, able supporting players in the past — “Gilmore Girls’’ and “Samantha Who’’ for her and “My Name Is Earl’’ for him — are immensely likable and share good chemistry and timing. …
The Hollywood Reporter says:
… fat jokes are served up as fast as McDonald's hamburgers. The thing is, those jokes have about as much flavor as those burgers. … the mix of schadenfreude and reductionism coming from the writers makes "Mike & Molly" cold and calculating, despite its likable leads and cast. …
Variety says:
… While no one should expect "Big Bang"-type audience retention, there's enough comedy content in this first seating to warrant keeping "Mike & Molly" on the TiVo menu, even if it's not quite love at first bite.
9:30 p.m. Monday. CBS.
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