Mad Love (Jason Biggs, Tyler Labine) (1 Viewer)

[AlexF]

So, Monday night featured another new CBS show -- one of my friends recommended it to me (seeing that I'm a Tyler Labine fan) -- Mad Love.


This is Jason Biggs' return (yes, he of American Pie) to television, and seems to be quite rather similar to How I Met Your Mother, except that he (Ben) appears to have met the girl (Kate, played by Sarah Chalke -- Stella, Ted's ex-fiancee, from HIMYM) in the first episode, and it's narrated by his best friend, played by Tyler Labine (Larry). Kate's best friend, Connie, is played by Judy Greer.


Loose plot: Ben and Kate meet by accident at the top of the Empire State Building, blah blah blah, fall in love. Their respective best friends Larry and Connie fall into immediate hate. How will this all work out?


Labine and Greer have some excellent chemistry, and Chalke seems to be one of those television actresses who can create good chemistry with pretty much anyone she's with (having seen her on two shows now... so take that as you will).


Anyhow -- plays a lot like a "lite" version of How I Met Your Mother, but without (so far) the flashbacks, forwards, sideways, and upward. Some clever jokes, decent situations, and utterly predictable (again, so far). I'll give it another watch next Monday night.

 

[Patrick Sun]

My thumb is sideways on this show after seeing the pilot episode. It'll end up being low priority viewing for me unless I hear the writing gets better. Then again, Tyler Labine can be a polarizing actor for me at times.

 

[AlexF]

I know exactly what you mean about the sideways thumb here. I'm not really convinced about the show, unless the pilot was a bit of misdirection, and the real show will concentrate more on Labine and Greer's characters.

 

[Hanson]

I wouldn't have even bothered with this show if it weren't for Labine, Chalke, and especially Judy Greer in the cast. Mildly enjoyable even if it seems clichéd. However, Labine's character runs at 11, and he became tiresome very quickly. There's usually a big tonal shift after the pilot, so we'll see how it goes from here.

 

[Malcolm R]

Originally Posted by Patrick Sun

Tyler Labine can be a polarizing actor for me at times.

Ditto. I lost most of my interest when I saw he was on the show. He doesn't seem to be any less irritating here than usual.


Has Jason Biggs had plastic surgery? I almost didn't recognize him; his face looks different.

 

[Hanson]

I wonder if Thomas and Bays are expecting money from the Mad Love producers considering the similarities -- Labine is Oscar Madison meets Barney Stinson and Biggs is basically Ted Mosbey and they pulled in Chalke off of her work as Stella HIMYM. The fact that it's on right after Mother also highlights the connection. And guess who directed the pilot? None other than Pamela Fryman, who I believe has directed every episode of HIMYM. They don't have the flashbacks that are central to HIMYM, but Labine's narration from the future is very reminiscent of Saget's role in HIMYM.


I agree that the real central story will be about Labine and Greer getting together. But as a situation, this seems much more constricting than HIMYM's.


I hope the malapropic ex-girlfriend comes back. Fabric snatches indeed!

 

[Patrick Sun]

Didn't the ex-girlfriend play JJ's girlfriend Beth in "American Dream"?


Maybe Jason Biggs got a nose job.

 

[Greg.K]

Originally Posted by Hanson Yoo

I wonder if Thomas and Bays are expecting money from the Mad Love producers considering the similarities -- Labine is Oscar Madison meets Barney Stinson and Biggs is basically Ted Mosbey and they pulled in Chalke off of her work as Stella HIMYM. The fact that it's on right after Mother also highlights the connection. And guess who directed the pilot? None other than Pamela Fryman, who I believe has directed every episode of HIMYM. They don't have the flashbacks that are central to HIMYM, but Labine's narration from the future is very reminiscent of Saget's role in HIMYM.

I've heard that the Barney in HIMYM was originally envisioned as a Jack Black-esque character before Neil Patrick Harris auditioned, and that's pretty much what we've got here.

 

[AlexF]

Officially canceled today. Along with the Defenders and Shat my Dad Says.

 

[Rob Willey]

Sorry to see this one go. I genuinely got some laughs from it. I can't say that about very many sitcoms which is why I watch so few. Good writing, good cast.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Tyler Labine just bugs me, so I'm only 3/4 "sad" that the show didn't get picked up for another season.