TV is the New Reading

‘Kath & Kim’ is a

welcome surprise

I was certain I was going to dislike “Kath & Kim.”

I first encountered this extraordinarily awful mother-and-daughter team in a series of sketches on IFC’s “Big Girl’s Blouse.” Kim had been proposed to in a not entirely convincing way and the sketches over time traced her wedding preparations to the toweringly bad ceremony itself.

In NBC’s remake for American television, that ceremony is 100 percent in the rearview mirror, along with most of Kim’s feelings for Craig, her dimwitted husband.

Kim, played by Selma Blair, moves back in with her mum, Kath Day, played by Molly Shannon, and starts right in sabotaging her divorced mother’s relationship with Kath’s new fiance, Phil Knight – and yes, the jokes about turning Day into Knight are silly, heavy-handed and endless.

But they’re also completely in character. I mentioned how Craig is kind of dim, yes? Well, honestly, he fits right in. None of these people will be hearing back from Mensa any time soon.

Kim, for example, has the intellectual curiosity of a block of Swiss cheese and the social graces of a flatulent mule. She refuses even to eat in – she leaves Craig in a huff because he won’t take her to Applebee’s every single night on his shop assistant’s salary. “I’m a trophy wife,” she declares indignantly, with no clear understanding of what that means.

Rather, she horns in on her mother’s big night out with Phil and proceeds to complain endlessly about the restaurant, Phil and everything. Craig tries to get Kim back and mum-in-law Kath advises him to get a dog. He does – a big dog. Kim declares she hates dogs, and Craig says “Yeah, but you always say you hate everything, so how am I supposed to know when you actually mean it?”

I’m normally not a fan of characters who are just impossibly stupid, but this show was OK. Shannon and Blair have great chemistry that comes out less in the fighting than in their quieter moments, although I shudder to think of these two sharing a General Foods International Coffee moment.

Kim, for instance, while screaming at her mom about turning her room into a workout room, is distracted by the cute zebra print rug. “Oh, that’s really cute!” she said, and she and Kath start talking about what it does for the space. And then Kim starts in fighting again.

Sigh.

Both Phil and Craig work at the mall, which is convenient, in that Kath and Kim can mess with both of their lives at once. When they haven’t stopped by the house, that is. Craig confronts Kim about leaving him, and she demands he get out and leave her alone. He gets a bright idea:

Craig: “OK, but if I go out that door, you’ll never see me again.”
Kim: (looks) “The joke’s on you. That door is made of glass.”
Craig: “Dammit! Why do you have to be such a brainiac all the time?!”

It’s not as good as the original, but most of the comedy is character-driven, accessible and reasonably funny. It packages pretty well with other offerings “My Name is Earl” and “The Office,” and no, not everything needs to be so highbrow all the time, either.

“Kath & Kim” airs at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays on NBC.

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