Reviews

I love a good black comedy and the first season, this fit the bill. Pretty women in trouble. Instant bonding, snarky dialogue. A gorgeous male villain. (Or is he?). The cops getting closer, red herrings and every episode ending in a cliff hanger. Funny and full of suspense. Couldn't wait for Season 2. The characters that we learned to love and root for are back with a new murder to cover up. Female buddy banter, most of the supporting cast is back for more hijinks. Still fun in-spite of using the long lost identical twin brother trope. A "smashing" season ending cliff hanger. Two years of Covid and co-star Christina Applegate's tragic MS diagnosis delays the start of what we all knew would be the final season. After the l-o-n-g wait, Season 3 is upon us. I REALLY wanted to love it or at least like it. Unfortunately the last season was a train wreck. The story was all over the map. More hijinks, hiding from the law and of course female bonding, yet it seemed redundant and at times over the top like a bad sitcom trying too hard to be farcical and sentimental at the same time. The Hallmark Movie ending did not win me over.

A "Gay" rom-com. About time you might say. I just wish it was better. Lot's of gay cliches & troupes of course (promiscuous gay men hooking up on line or dancing shirtless at the dance club. Well okay, ha ha, gays too can laugh at themselves. In any rom-com of course you have to suspend belief a bit and hopefully believe in or hope for true love. The main problem here though is that the lead character "Bobby" (played by Billy Eichner, who wrote the movie) is self-loathing, obnoxious to the point of being insufferable. It very much plays out like a Barbra Streisand character in any of her movies. Will the hunky stud (Hallmark Movie heart throb: Luke Macfarlane) fall in love? Well it's a rom-com. Hey fellow gays, we can do better than this!

It's got a great cast. Jeff Daniels is good in everything he does. Maura Tierney stretches herself as an actress playing the working class seamstress in a dead end town. The supporting cast also set the tone of people stuck in their hometown all sleep walking through their lives. We've seen this before but done better. (Mare of Eastown). After 1 episode, where the characters and story are introduced and set up though, so far there is no emotional "hook". Yes there's a murder and all is not at it seems, but the pacing of the story is very slow. I'm not really rooting for anyone yet. None of the characters (including the leads are particularly interesting or even likable. Still, I'm interested enough to try another episode or 2 to see how it all unfolds. Watching a lot of these murder in a small town mystery series that we're seeing on cable these days, sometimes the stories take a while to get where they're going!

The premise is interesting. Most makeover reality shows have a formula: start from almost nothing, rebuild/reconstruct, overcoming all potential obstacles. The end result, the property is magically a showplace by the final grand unveiling. The hosts start out as somewhat pleasant, well intentioned, and of course good looking and if they're women, well dressed with perfect hair and makeup, even when they have paint or plaster on them. The viewers usually know ahead of time what they're in for.

The problem with this one is the hosts. BFF's probably in their mid 30's, they act and sound like high school valley girls or girls being played in a Saturday Day Night Live skit with Amy Poehler and Kristen Wiig. High pitched squeals about color tiles or lamps become very annoying, very quickly. After watching 2 of the 6 episodes, even know I am interested in seeing the finished project, I don't think I can sit through another episode. When you watch reality makeover shows, you expect the hosts to be slightly self absorbed. These 2 are grating and obnoxous!