How To Live With Your Parents (For The Rest Of Your Life)

Elizabeth Perkins (Weeds) plays Chalke’s Mother, Brad Garrett (Til’ Death) plays her step dad, and Jon Dore (The Jon Dore Show) plays her ex-husband. Rachel Eggleston, whose made brief appearances in a slew of known shows like Justified, House M.D., Chuck, and The Mentalist plays Chalke’s daughter. 

 

Thought the show doesn’t really bring anything new to the table it’s a quick twenty + minute pilot episode that offers up a few laughs and sets up a world of quirky characters that could mean bigger laughs down the line, maybe. Like I said, not original, but has the makings of something that could work. So what’s wrong with it, and what is right with it?

 

For starters the show brings the usual comedy formula to the table. All comedies centered around a relatively young demographic has the main character narrating their life at some point. Despite the fact that I wanted to avoid any Scrubs mentions, Chalke + Narration brings me straight back. 

 

Quirky characters have been a staple in sitcoms for pretty much ever. As time goes on we see character gets too quirky, such is the case for Elizabeth Perkins character who flits across the screen in a half drunken stupor most of the time. Yeah, we get it, she’s a wash out. Brad Garrett’s character plays in contrast with this with his usual second fiddle routine. His character is likeable only because he’s the only one playing it straight in a cast of oddballs. 

 

Chalke plays it as she’s always done. She has nervous knee jerk conversations and acts wounded most of the time. Not a far cry from her (yes I am) Scrubs character. She’s waiting on romance but it looks like she’ll more then likely juggle trying to reconcile what she had with her ex and trying to move on. Honestly, I don’t really see any curveballs in the near future for this show. 

 

What makes the pilot work is that this is a fresh set of the usual scenario’s, only played out with different angles. Your given the kitchen sink treatment as the show throws one-liners and odd character revelations, such as Garrett’s unmentionables, and Polly’s ex being a complete man-child. Everybody loves a train wreck. Throw on top of that the possibility of inappropriateness involving Polly’s parents as they try to care for their grand daughter. It’s surface comedy, but it works, for now. Will it continue working further down the line? Time will tell.