Marry Me: The Sitcom Of The Year

 I have been searching for an enjoyable new sitcom to watch over the past few weeks and up until this afternoon I had come up empty. First there was A to Z which in the pilot felt like it wasn't quite sure what it was supposed to be and I wasn't willing to put in the time to see how it ended up because I could spend that time watching the comedy classic The Big Bang Theory (I'm joking, don't judge me for that statement). Then there was Selfie that seems promising but I don't think missing an episode or 3 would really matter, I haven't gotten engrossed in the show or characters as much as I would have liked. I decided to dip my toe into sitcom land one more time this year and watched Marry Me earlier today and after one episode I can tell it was the show I was waiting for.

Marry Me comes from the mind of David Caspe who created the much underrated Happy Endings. Whenever I tell a friend that I was a fan of Happy Endings they seem to laugh and want to rescind the TV geek girl card that I gave to myself. Happy Endings may not have had the most brilliant start (or the most brilliant name) but it did manage to develop into a show that is truly funny, with well rounded and loveable characters, and isn't that what we need in a sitcom? Unfortunately the damage was done after the first season and it was unable to gain the audience that it had lost so it was cancelled after the third season, and it still pains me. But I guess Marry Me came out of the shows cancellation so it's not all bad. Marry Me follows Annie and Jake who get engaged after a six year relationship even though the botched proposals are deemed by them as signs that are pointing towards their relationship being doomed, eventually they get it together and presumably we'll watch them on the way to the isle. I take issue with the name of the show again, I mean for some reason sitcoms just tend to be badly titled! What happens when they do get married, the show won't be about their proposal anymore will it? Unless their friends get engaged which is possible, or they could changed the name I guess. I vote for a Cougar Town style intro when it gets to that point, put in the intro that the show is badly named and then I'll take back my initial reservations.



Marry Me does feel like an extension of Happy Endings, it has the same type of humour and a stellar cast with the lead female, Annie, being played by Casey Wilson. The only thing that annoyed me in the show was the character of Annie, not because she wasn't hilarious or enjoyable to watch because she was, but because she was incredibly similar to Penny Hartz who Wilson played in Happy Endings. Seeing Wilson in Saturday Night Live showed me that she is an incredibly gifted comedienne and can play many roles so I don't quite understand why she is essentially playing Penny again. It felt like I was watching Happy Endings a few years on whenever Annie came on screen and it's frustrating because Wilson isn't limited and the writers could have done a lot more with the character. We are only one episode in so they may still change her up a bit, if they don't it'll probably grate on me when I'm watching the show. The good thing is that it will probably be the only thing that grates on me.

Being a Veronica Mars fan makes me very happy to say the thing I'm about to say. The male lead is played by none other than Ken Marino who Marshmallows will know as Vinne Van lowe! He plays the easy going Jake, the straight man to Wilsons uptight Annie and it's quite refreshing to see him in this kind of role as I have only seen him be over the top funny rather than understated. His character is instantly engaging the moment he waltzes on screen and grounds Annie, and the two characters compliment each other well. Unlike A to Z these characters seem like they can stand on their own two feet and don't need to constantly be in scenes with one another to be watchable. I didn't find myself drifting off while they were away from each other and hanging out with their friends, I took in every moment of the show even when they weren't on screen together.

The other comedies that have premiered this year have fallen flat quite a bit, one of the main reasons being the use of supporting characters. Even Selfie which I like a bit doesn't use them as much as it could, and three episodes in I still feel like I barely know them. They aren't stand outs or appealing when they are on screen, even when interacting with the leads. This is another way that Marry Me has outshone the competition. The pilot episode focuses on the lead characters greatly as it was setting up the proposal which is the main plot of the series, but still introduced an array of characters who didn't have a lot of screen time or lines but made me fall in love instantly. I know now that if the lead characters for some reason are uninteresting in an episode or become down right irritating like How I Met Your Mother, I still have those characters and their one liners to fall back on.

So if you're like me and have been disappointed with the sitcoms the American networks have had to offer this television year then I urge you to try out Marry Me. Ignore the cheesy poster,  you won't regret it!

Live Long and Blog!

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