Accidentally on Purpose - Pilot

Network: CBS

Time: Mondays, 8:30-9:00pm

Cast: Jenna Elfman, Jon Foster, Ashley Jensen, Lennon Parham, Grant Show, Nicolas Wright

Creator: Claudia Lonow

Based on memoir by Mary F. Pols

Summary: Accidentally on Purpose is a new sitcom on CBS starring Jenna Elfman and Jon Foster. Billie (Elfman), a thirty-something newspaper film critic, meets Zack (Foster) one night in a bar. Long story short, they have the one-night stand that every 22-year-old wannabe chef has nightmares about--the kind that gets the girl pregnant. Billie decides she's going to keep the baby, and Zack decides he's going to man up and be a father. So he moves into her house, and they begin their life as platonic friends who happen to be having a baby together.

Review: Because I didn't want to start with a bad review of Fame, I'll make my first post about the pilot episode of a brand new series, Accidentally on Purpose. Now, if you're anything like me, you watched the previews for and read the synopsis of this show and went, "What a stupid idea. The concept is totally overdone, and the premise is both unbelievable and cliched at the same time."

Or maybe that was just me.

Either way, I only watched this show because it was on between How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men (and kudos to CBS for its good scheduling there). I'm the first to admit I went in skeptical, and I certainly wasn't prepared to give it its fair chance. Fortunately, it was good enough to surprise me.

Let's start with the main character. Billie isn't the typical thirty-something as portrayed in other shows. Yes, her biological clock is ticking (which is sort of what gets her in this mess to begin with). Yes, she's a bit neurotic sometimes. But all in all, she's got a good job; she's confident in herself as an employee, a woman, and a friend; and she's very grounded. She's exactly the kind of woman I'd like to be in my 30s. And, most importantly, she's exactly the kind of woman you like. Which is good for Claudia Lenow, the creator of Accidentally on Purpose, because it means more of us are going to keep watching it.

So then there's Zack. Now, in most sitcoms, he'd be the classic underachiever who hooked up with an older woman and now got himself into a mess, right? Well... he did hook up with an older woman. And I guess he got himself into a mess. But underachiever? No way. Zack handles this situation like any woman would die for. He decides right away that he wants to be a father for his child, which means being there for Billie during her pregnancy. And he's smart. In so many situations like this, the young dad-to-be has utterly no concept of what pregnancy is. He asks stupid questions and makes completely inappropriate comments. Not Zack (that dubious honor is reserved for his best friend, the underachieving slacker named Davis (Nicolas Wright) who's futon was the site of conception). Zack is sweet and sensible and shows a level of commitment that Billie couldn't hope for from most of the older men she knows.

Now, the main characters are great, but any viewer knows that it's the supporting cast that really makes a show, especially a sitcom. And Accidentally on Purpose has that in droves. There's Billie's best friend Olivia (Ashley Jensen), who is the Sex and the City-generation's answer to the thirty-something, and whose often not-great advice contributes to Billie's situation. There's Billie's sister Abby (Lennon Parham), who may not have gotten the brains in the family, but she seems to have the relationship skills. There's Zack's best friend Davis, who I spoke about earlier, and whose relationship with Billie may actually be funnier than any other relationship combination in the show.

And of course there has to be the drama. We'll call him James (Grant Show). James is Billie's boss. I mean, ex-boyfriend. I mean, love interest. I mean... well, you get the point. He's the wedge that drives the potential Zack and Billie relationship apart, at least for now.

What made this pilot so good? I don't know. It could be the great characters that just beg you to like them. It could be the snappy dialogue and the one-liners that had me laughing until my sides hurt. Or it could just be the wonderfully real relationships that develop as a result of this baby. No matter what it is, I know where I'm going to be on Mondays at 8:30 for awhile.

Rating:

[1] Run in the other direction

[2] Don't bother

[3] Worth a watch if you've got nothing better to do

[4] Definitely try it out

[5] A total keeper