TV Show – Whitney – S01E01

With two new shows out this fall Whitney Cummings seems to really be carving a name for herself, although it’s a name i’ve only just heard of, from what i’ve heard she is really funny. Well if she was that funny I would have heard of her… surely… Well I have now. So lets see what her first pilot has to offer, it is semi-biographical and from my experiences shows with that premise are relatively short lived but hey she may have an interesting life… Click the pic to send you to a place of information.

Whitney is filmed infront of a live studio audience and everything i’ve watched that is seems to be proud of this fact, I am unsure why. Although a live audience is better than canned laughter I do think that the performers have to be strong enough to not break the scene by waiting for the audience to settle back down. They should rely on the writers to create breaks after big laughs and anytime they get caught out by a chuckle they should carry on, because as it may not be obvious if you are laughing the times that you are not there is some what of an awkward pause. Besides if they just carry on and someone laughs there way through the next line/joke then they have something to enjoy next time they watch, which in my view adds an illusion of depth as it allows people to say ‘Everytime I watch it I find something new’.

But lets get beyond the audience and we have a story about a couple, Whitney (Whitney Cummings) and Alex (Chris D’Elia), whom are living in sin. Whitney is an opinionated girl that is scared of marriage – due to her parents divorces, but knows she wants to be with Alex forever. The jokes are rather corney but if you give the characters a little bit of time they are managable but not killer. The show is built around the couple, their couple friend (Lily and Neal - Zoe Lister Jones and Maulik Pancholy) and a single guy (Mark – Dan O’Brien) and girl (Roxanne – Rhea Seehorn). Giving the tried and tested ‘we need 6, 3 of each’ set up in a cast. There is nothing groundbreaking and i think verges on the cliche, whitney is outspoken about womens issues but its been done, the other couple seem to have a better relationship, the single guy tries to be a playboy and the single girl is depressed about being alone. This is not going to be my new favourite comedy but it will find veiwers and i think do well.