4 out of 5

Created By: Nahnatchka Khan

Even though it hovers right on the line of being too sitcom… I have to admit that ‘Don’t Trust the B—-‘ finds a pretty unique niche with its perky crassness, to the point that I’m surprised ABC allowed to happen for its two seasons.  Character aspects that are iffy are effectively toned down or up as appropriate, and elements that could be considered ‘quirks’ end up being necessary ingredients.  The cutesy intros are almost always negated as soon as they start to trickle in to cloying, and although I do wish there was more, its almost good that it was killed right when roomies Chloe and June are starting to truly warm up to one another.

But you couldn’t have guessed this would be maintained based on the first episode: perky midwest June gets a big city job and finds an apartment with the seemingly wonderful Chloe while waiting for her fiancee to follow her to NY.  But she loses the job, and it turns out that Chloe’s whole existence is based around scams – she gets first month’s rent from new roomies and then makes the experience as awful as possible so they move out.  This includes flaunting her open sexuality (constant parties and boyfriends, hanging out naked around the house), complete disrespect for the other person’s property, openly exploiting her friendship with James Van Der Beek (playing himself in an awesomely balanced but believable self-parody), and embracing the pervert neighbor-across-the-way, Eli, who maybe masturbates while watching brazenly watching Chloe and June’s apartment through their synced up windows.  June’s first hint that things are maybe off come from Robin, who lives in the building, who warns June of ‘the bitch in apartment 23.’  But she gets plenty of other hints immediately following.

And then we get our format for a sitcom when June determines to stay on as Chloe’s roommate.  The short season 1 thus consists of Chloe acting ridiculous, and June acting shocked.  Both actresses (Dreama Walker as June, Krysten Ritter as Chloe) are right on the line of too cute or too annoying, but bold diversions in the scripts keep it alive, the writing actually relying on wit and not just the general silly scenario to keep us laughing.  And Van Der Beek.  It’s hard to express how much he adds to the show: he and the writers manage to pitch it just right, maintaining his celebrity status but including him in the goings-on without it seeming forced, and doing the ignorant, shallow well-intentioned bit so that it somehow never gets old.  I think it helped that they kept some plotlines going – James auditioning for certain directors, trying to get on Dancing With the Stars…  It wasn’t just ‘guest starring That Guy’ every week.  The same thing goes for our other regulars – June’s coffee shop buddy Mark, Robin (who turns out to be obsessed with Chloe), Beek’s assistant, Luther and Eli, all fully functioning as ‘regulars’ but advancing, step-by-step, in ways that prevent it from just being a cut to side character A, B, or C for a fill-in gag.

The start of season 2 dips a little in the way that you’d expect, with Chloe’s antics falling into shtick, but about halfway through the show slips into a really fun groove as they actually allow the characters to grow a bit.  But again, that could have only gone so far before the magic stopped, so… yeah.  I guess there can be good sitcoms on occasion.  I got over the over-the-topness of Ritter, the seemingly kitsch inclusion of Beek, and a questionable show title… all thanks to quality that was apparent from the start.  But it was canceled, so I’m sure in its stead we can look forward to more palatable laugh-track fare.  Beep.