A Televisual Feast

The series–with its first female writer so far–gets around to humanizing Ned and saving Stacey from her dumbness arc. In this episode, Stacey realizes Ned loves the parents she can’t stand. It gives her and Amanda a funny scene together and Ned has some great moments with the whole cast around, but it never pays […]

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The first episode to focus (mostly) on Rico and Amanda works fairly well, since Nadia Dajani and Greg Germann can handle anything. The odd thing about the episode is the handling of Stacey. She’s a practically a pariah, irritating everyone, sabotaging Ned’s big commercial. It’s a strange direction to take one of the show’s titular […]

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Another blah sensitive episode. While it’s nice to see some actual relationship development between Ned and Stacey… Messing’s falling behind in the acting here again, real bad. The opening bit, with Ned pestering Stacey about possible nicknames, is gold and so’s the first half of the episode. The problems arise when things get touchy-feely in […]

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With the third episode, “Ned and Stacey” finds its mix. It’s got a great scene with the quartet–Ned, Stacey, Amanda and Rico–bringing out all the possibilities of the situation. Here, it’s Amanda agreeing with Ned even though he disgusts her… not to mention Ned, annoyingly, trying to facilitate Stacey’s happiness (by urging her to date).
As […]

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A sitcom not ending on a laugh–and not a “very special” episode either… It’s like Weithorn realized it at the last minute and tried to pull it around but couldn’t. Schmaltzy. It was a schmaltzy end.
Otherwise, the episode starts strong, peaks early and then the bicycle goes down the hill. The episode opens the morning […]

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As a pilot episode, “Ned and Stacey” is awkward. While it does introduce the characters well, even getting in all the members of the supporting cast, the problem has to do with the show concept. Thomas Haden Church playing a jerky ad exec who marries Debra Messing’s liberal journalist (who’s more than a little materialistic) […]

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