I didn't catch this family's last name, but I'm going to assume it's Conner.

Pilot review: Raising Hope

This was a good show. Not the funniest show I've ever seen, although it's certainly ridiculous and outside the realm of truly believable. But it was definitely enjoyable to watch and I get the feeling it's endearing enough that it'll make me cry at least once every few weeks. The characters are stupid and they do a bunch of stupid crap, but they care about each other and it makes them likable. I'm definitely watching next week.

What it's got going for it:

• Martha Plimpton & Garret Dillahunt: They're really great as Jimmy's parents. They straddle the weird collection of lines this show is walking perfectly. They're weird, lazy, and not too bright, but they're also cute, caring, and amusingly self-deprecating. Them singing to the baby at the end had me close to tears.
  
• Lucas Neff: This show does kind of depend on Jimmy being likable, and like the actors playing his parents, he manages that strange line between stupid and endearing quite well. It was the part where he was up all night trying to get the baby to fall asleep that I realized this was a show I wanted to keep watching.
  

And against it:

• The current TV landscape?: This is maybe a show that should have been on cable. It's too unconventional for CBS, it's a little too depressing to fit in with either the NBC or ABC comedy line-ups, plus it's a different type of quirky than either of those networks. FOX is basically the right place for it, but they just don't have anything to pair it with. I'm not sure after Glee is the right audience, and it's paired with Running Wilde, which I have yet to review but have already watched so I know that it's terrible. This show would really fit best with something like The Simpsons or Family Guy, so I just don't know that floating pretty much by itself on a Tuesday night is get it an audience.

Common elements:

• I was calling Marti from Hellcats and Carly Pope's character from Outlaw both something like "hip alternative girl" but I think they're both actually closer to the Manic Pixie Dream Girl model. So I feel like Sabrina fits into that category too. She reads David Sedaris, she draws funny faces on cantaloupe, she inexplicably likes Jimmy. MPDG.
• Incompetent parents in common with Hellcats, Mike & Molly, and Lone Star.