ABC Family attempts comedy -- will anyone be laughing?

Natalie Brown stars as "Sophie." (ABC Family)After tonight's season finale of "Secret Life of the American Teenager" (8 p.m.), ABC Family debuts two new comedies, "Sophie" (9 p.m.) and "Roommates" (9:30 p.m.). It'll get to them in a minute, but first...

When "Secret Life" debuted last summer, I gave it a pretty negative review. I later came back and re-evaluated, something all TV critics have to do from time-to-time when we only have a couple episodes to go on for that initial review. I still think the show has some really weird things happening and some not-so-great acting performances, but it has clearly touched a chord with young viewers by depicting more recognizable teen characters than the glossy but little-watched "Gossip Girl." And even though I initially though "Secret Life" was a lot like "7th Heaven" -- both shows are from the same creator -- tonally they're totally different. "7th Heaven" depicted a rareified, more perfect life for its characters. On "Secret Life," the characters live in more complicated, far less ideal circumstances, and that doesn't even include the pregnant teenager.

Tonight's season finale deftly handles myriad "Secret Life" relationships as Amy (Shailene Woodley) gives birth. Did I mention how much I love that the show's writers are willing to make Amy a pill who is ridiculously naive? She's not the most likeable character but teenagers are known for not always being terribly easy-to-like.

Onto "Sophie" and "Roommates" even though I have less to say about them. ABC Family wouldn't make "Roommates" available for review but the clips looked pretty awful.

With both shows, ABC Family appears to be trying to age up its offerings, moving away from teen-friendly fare ("Secret Life," the canceled "Kyle XY," "Greek," which returns next week) to capture older viewers in their 20s.

"Sophie," a single-camera comedy, stars Natalie Brown as a pregant 30-year-old woman who inherited her father's talent agency. In one awful day she discovers her best client is sleeping with her boyfriend of five years, who plans to start a rival agency. There aren't many laughs to be had in the first half-hour and the show comes across as a rather generic series that reminds me of all those twentysomething-in-the-big-city sitcoms NBC used to string between its Thursday night hits in the '90s.

Oh, while we're on the subject of ABC Family, let me just express my solidarity with fans of "Kyle XY" who were outraged that the series ended in a cliffhanger last week. What a rip. "A new kind of family," my eye. It's the same kind of network family that takes its viewers for granted, just as the broadcast networks do. Fans have suggest boycotting the network on its own forums, but some of those posts have been deleted. At least the producer was allowed to offer answers to questions generated by the finale.

Posted Mar 23 2009, 01:44 AM by Rob Owen
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Comments

John L wrote re: ABC Family attempts comedy -- will anyone be laughing?
on Mon, Mar 23 2009 1:47 PM

Count me among those vexed by the cancellation of "Kyle XY" in mid-story. I must admit that I tuned out last season as it didn't seem to be going anywhere. But, I gave it another chance this season and was pleasantly surprised to find it had found a direction, only to be sorely disappointed at it's sudden demise.

I find it disingenuous and self-serving of ABC Family to have the show's writer/co-producer attempt to answer the grand scope of Kyle's story universe in just a few paragraphs. It's like reading the first two novels of a trilogy, only to be handed a Cliff's Notes version of the third and final book. It seems to me that ABC Family posted that Q&A session, not so much to give the fans some closure, but to try to head off calls for "Kyle" movies to finish the story properly and completely.

I'm pretty fed up with ABC Family. I enjoyed the show "Beautiful People", then they canceled it. I watched "Wildfire" until it got boring. I liked the other show about the beach town (the name slips my mind) which I followed until it, too, was canceled. I will think twice before starting to get involved with any new shows on ABC Family. Why bother, when they don't seem to care about their loyal viewers?

AdmitsIt wrote re: ABC Family attempts comedy -- will anyone be laughing?
on Mon, Mar 23 2009 5:24 PM

ABCFam wants comedy? What are the odds that a half season of both of these 1/2 hour shows will be as amusing as the unproduced 13th ep of The Middleman?

frggystyl wrote re: ABC Family attempts comedy -- will anyone be laughing?
on Tue, Mar 24 2009 7:07 PM

Kyle XY is a prime example of the old adage, “only the good die young.”  After three short seasons, we as fans are left begging for more… more of a show that was our bright spot on Monday nights.

We Kyle XY fans are a loyal group.  As a member of KyleXY dot net, I’m doing what I can to help resurrect this show.  You can join in the fight as well.  The more of us that speak out for Kyle XY, the easier it is for the networks to hear us!

frggystyl wrote re: ABC Family attempts comedy -- will anyone be laughing?
on Tue, Mar 24 2009 7:10 PM

Kyle XY is a prime example of the old adage, “only the good die young.”  After three short seasons, we as fans are left begging for more… more of a show that was our bright spot on Monday nights.

We Kyle XY fans are a loyal group.  As a member of KyleXY dot net, I’m doing what I can to help resurrect this show.  You can join in the fight as well.  The more of us that speak out for Kyle XY, the easier it is for the networks to hear us!

Europa wrote re: ABC Family attempts comedy -- will anyone be laughing?
on Tue, Mar 24 2009 7:40 PM

Kyle XY fans are determined to save this show. Nothing is to be expected from ABCF, so efforts are going on having the series picked up by another network.

Go to savekylexy.com or kylexy.net, there are many ways to help our cause !

Raquelborn wrote re: ABC Family attempts comedy -- will anyone be laughing?
on Wed, Mar 25 2009 5:05 AM

You're completely spot-on, we Kyle XY fans are outraged. The interview with Julie Plec is vague and many people have refused to read it because they don't want to hear the rest of the story if it's not filmed, ABC Family are trying to ignore the fan campaign efforts - though I'm sure we've become a bit of a thorn in their side - and not only that but they've replaced Kyle XY with two shows that lack originality, laughs and certainly aren't going to be any kind of break-through new hit series.

ABC Family is going to be learning the hard way to not neglect loyal fans and understand which shows are worth keeping and which shows are worth not even seeing the light of day.