I May be Over "Underbelly"

With the amount of hype it's gotten in the last few weeks, it was hard to miss the series premiere of "Notes from the Underbelly" last Thursday.  That is, unless you were looking for it in a normal sit-com timeslot, like, oh...anything before 10 pm.

As a 30-something parent with two young kids, I felt a strange sense of obligation to identify with some of these characters, but I found that incredibly hard to do.  Most of them were one-dimensional stereotypes -- the obsessive, expectant first-time parents; the self-absorbed, single, childless friends; and the semi-normal yet slightly neurotic couple deciding to start a family (yawn).

"Notes from the Underbelly" is the latest in a long list of TV series that have attempted the "new parents and their childless friends" or "sophisticated 30-something couple attempts parenthood" formula.  And most (like "Cold Feet" from 1999 -- remember that? no? well, you're not the only one) didn't last long. So I don't have particularly high hopes for "Underbelly."

While there were a few moments that I felt captured some truth about marriage or pregnancy, they were not at all groundbreaking or original.  And while there were a few good laughs (thank you, Rachel Harris), there were also some deathly long and awkward scenes, and a several times where I felt that either I -- or my intelligence -- was being insulted.

Comments

[Spig]

Yeah, I watched the two episode premiere (it is gonna be 30 minutes right?--there was a title screen halfway through that was weird) with my wife. There were some funny moments, but they were going for all the cheap laughs, lowest-common denominator crap. The lead guy's face seems off to me and the lead actress (newly preggers one) looks too much like Phoebe from Friends.

[Kyla]

I think I'll give it another week or two...but if it doesn't improve, I'm out.

[Maddy]

I saw a trailer for that too, but didn't get around........
So I shouldn't bother?
Cheers

[Nic]

I liked the second episode better than the first the other day, and I'll give it one more shot. I think series premieres are sometimes tough because they have so much back story to cram in plus set up the show and still try and retain the same air that the series will have. I will say, I did NOT like the obsessive parents. I think toning them down a bit will help a little.

[Nick]

It seems to me that television shows with this specific and narrow of a demographic focus are doomed to fail. That said, I haven't watched the show so I won't make any comments on the show itself.

[Shanna]

I think that the characters are all weird and they need to add a later 30's couple trying because of the biological clock ticking and it not working. (yes applies to me, 18 months of trying, 40 a month away and nothing but 3 losses) At least if they are covering the pregnant couple, the single friends, and the newly, got it on the first try couple, add in real life too. Sorry, it was too perfect how they wrote it.
I agree that the guy looks weird and the girl looks like Phoebe.

[Isabel]

I watched it and admit to laughing a few times. While it's not "real" at all...it was funny.

I had a hard time seeing the lead lady as anything other then her "kissing jessica stein" character. Am I the only one?

[Izzy]

I hate to say this because I wanted to like it but I thought it sucked.

[Amanda]

We laughed at a couple of moments that seemed to have been plucked from our own marriage (my husband's "no tv in the bedroom because it'll kill the romance rule"), but I agree that the characters felt too much like "types" too soon. And anyone else feel like Rachel Harris still wanting to hook up with the Kyle guy after she found out he was in a rocky marriage was, uh, kinda distasteful? May as well display a giant flashing neon sign reading "Samantha from Sex & the City" there, writers.

[petite mommy]

This show really sucked. Sorry.

[Marilyn]

Amen. I was amused by some scenes (the newly pregnant gals immediate need for food rang especially true for me) but I was annoyed by the tone. It was almost like the person writing the show was putting out what either they thought it would be like or what they thought we thought it should be like? (Does ANY of that make any sense? I need more coffee) I'll give it another week too, but it was pretty sacreligious. Much as I love Rachel Harris, I don't think a show like this needs some sniffing too-cool character to poo-poo parenthood.

[Lena]

Oh Mrs. Davis, how well you articulated my trouble with this show. No new ground! Pregnancy cravings? Check. Doofus husbands? Check. Super successful exec bff? Check. Clueless moron SAHM? Check. Inferred oral sex? Check.

It's trying to be a pregnant version of "Sex & the City", but comes off more like an insulting version of "30 Something".

[Ivory]

Yuck. Just the commercials turned me off. But then again, most mainstream TV sitcoms reduce me to a eye-rolling, remote throwing jerk.