Cool News
Hercules Weighs In On CBS’
New Fatcom MIKE & MOLLY!!
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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Readers Talkback
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Too bad
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Would be a great name for a band.<p>Okay, maybe not 'great'.<p>But good. Yeah, I'll go with good.
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think this might be a show I'd watch is the sight-gag of his finger injury. They go all out with that one and it's pretty twisted (literally).
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Wonder if they can get Jack Black's character's character from the fake trailer in Tropic Thunder to make an appearance. It's not like his career is really rolling at the moment.
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Jack Black is in that Gulliver's Travels remake (and it's in 3D, so you know that only makes it better). It's the movie with the tagline "Black is the New Big" (I have yet to find anyone who can make sense of that).<p><br>On second thought, yeah, I see what you mean.
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Makes sense for a big fat dude like him to be married to someone like her, unlike King of Queens or other past sitcoms where the loser husband is married to a hottie who can obviously do better. From what I've seen of this show so far, it reminds me of Roseanne... except the male characer is more of the central focus on this show than the female.
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I've seen both versions of the Running Wilde pilot (they recast a couple of people), and it's pretty funny. I'm guessing a lot of TV critics are not liking it, but I'm really not sure why, except that it's not as funny as Arrested Development (see also: almost every TV comedy since Arrested Development). It's not as confidently amazing as the Arrested Development pilot, but it's funny enough for me to keep watching for at least a few weeks, probably the whole season.
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Fat guys have to be married to skinny hot women. Honymooners, flintstones,Simpsons, King of queens, I'm sure there's others. I suppose Rosanne broke that rule too and it ran for like 7 years, so maybe theres still hope for the fatties?
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where do we see fat guys with models as wives except in billionaire situations or tv sitcoms? Lot of fat TV execs, sounds like.<p>And yes, I do live in a glass house. Care for a brick at 90mph?
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Goodman is still for my money the fattest sitcom star to have ever existed, I mean he must have hit 400 pounds at some point in the series
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I don't know where you all live, but I see fat dudes and skinny women together as well as fat women and skinny dudes all the time. It happens. Hell, just spend 5 minutes in Walmart and you'll see it. A lot of times, they're married couples and it's likely the heavy-set ones gained weight after getting married. (And some dudes are just "into" fat chicks). There's something creepy about the premise of this show, like it implies fatties should only mate with other fatties. Seems narrow-minded.
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I'm a bigger guy and I told myself years ago I don't deserve anyone, and going into 40 i'm still alone
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AND love fat people. Some people prefer big people to bony skinny people. SOME people have no interest in ever being with skinny people and think THEY are gross. I am one of those people :) Have a nice day
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Sept. 21, 2010, 7:34 a.m. CST
As a former fat guy, and now by no means slim
by Grammaton Cleric Binks
I can say that yes, fat people need tough love. I'm totally against bullying any kid, especially fat ones. I didn't start to get fat until I was around ten. Freshman year of college I joined the National Guard. I got healthy on Drill Sgt. Riddick's (long before the movie) do pushups or else diet. It worked, but later I put the weight back on because I was not educated on the four cornerstones of weight loss: nutrition, portion control, cardio exercise, and weights. You need all four to lose weight. End of discussion. It took me years to take it off finally because in the end it's a personal choice. You either want to lose weight, or you don't. No one can force you. I understand there are different body types, and it is easier for some that others. That aside, if you apply yourself there is no reason you won't lose weight. You may never get six-pack abs, but you won't be a beach ball either. I used to be 50 pounds heavier, at one point I was almost 70 pounds lighter. I've put on a little weight, and am slowly working on dropping another 20, but I'm not morbidly obese by any means. I hike, walk, and bike (I hate running.) Like anything in life its' what you put into it. Oh, and people who get stomach surgery are cheaters. Any idiot can do that. You hear me Al Roker and Randy Jackson. You didn't do crap.
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and society says she's fat. As long as it's not a health issue, which in most cases it isn't there's no reason for that garbage. You don't have to be rail thin to be sexy.
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If a guy says she has curves, she has a retro bombshell type build. If a chick says she has curves, she's fat.
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I agree w/ you to an extent, but you are going overboard. Quitting smoking or even drinking if you are an alcoholic is a cake-walk compared to someone w/ a true eating problem losing and controlling their weight. To quit cigs and booze, you cut it out entirely. But everybody HAS to keep eating. Sure, obese people will need to utilize will-power. More than most will EVER have to. But to suggest that everyone in society treat them like shit? That's crazy talk.
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