Goodbye 'My Boys'

I spotted the fateful news on my TweetDeck yesterday afternoon: TBS cancels "My Boys."

I can't say I'm surprised.

Kates and I watched faithfully from the first episode. ... We never loved it the way we've loved "Lost," or "Grey's Anatomy" in its heyday. But we remained charmed by the chummy, laid-back clan of young adults. Not to mention the show's Chicago homebase. And its baseball metaphors.

When the latest season started mid-summer, Jim Gaffigan was gone, and watching the show quickly dropped off our priority list. We lost interest, and the last two or three episodes are sitting somewhere among a stack of VHS tapes in our living room. "Mad Men," which held the same timeslot as "My Boys," did get priority.

We miss our DVR.

EW has a good tribute to "My Boys" today.

The Boys are back

So Kates and I eagerly caught the premiere of "My Boys" tonight ...

And it was as good as any of last season's episodes, its inagural season. I laughed out loud constantly ...

It was good to see PJ and Brendan make up after their awkward moment that ended last season (but I'm not counting on Brendan's new girl to stick around for long ... ) ... and the whole bit with Kenny's new girlfriend (Hello! Nicole Sullivan!!) who turned a blind eye to her pregnancy was excellent as well ...

I was lukewarm at best on the show when it started last fall, yet Kates and I tuned in for every episode. Besides, its loaded with references to Chicago and baseball, and it's got Jim Gaffigan -- what more do you need, right !? Still, with last night's premiere, aptly titled "The Promise of a New Season," the show, is clearly showing signs of maturity ...

Kevin McDonough couldn't have put it any better:

Some shows excite viewers and others repel them. In the end, some are created for comfort — something to slip into like a favorite shoe. The comedy “My Boys” (9 p.m., TBS) is just entering its sophomore season, and it already has that old-sneaker feeling. And that is precisely its charm and its limitation.

For the uninitiated, “Boys” stars Jordana Spiro as the pretty Chicago-based sportswriter P.J. Franklin. Most of her pals are guys and all of her habits — creating fantasy-baseball rosters, playing poker and hanging out at dive bars — make her just like one of the boys. At the end of last season, we catch P.J. and her longtime roommate and platonic pal Brendan (Reid Scott) locked in a romantic embrace. Will this change everything? I’ll never tell.

P.J.’s miserably married brother (the affable everyman Jim Gaffigan) has moved to the suburbs, so now he can add commuting to his list of complaints. Her sportswriting rival, Bobby, has been “promoted” to covering NASCAR, but nobody seems to consider it a promotion or NASCAR a sport. Mike (Jamie Kaler) has settled too comfortably into unemployment and the furtive Kenny (Michael Bunin)seems to have found himself a girl (Nicole Sullivan).

OK, the sports-metaphor voiceover is laid on a tad thick. The Chicago tourist attractions seem pretty obvious. And must Brendan wear a Ramones T-shirt in every scene? He’s a rock DJ. We get it!

Much like P.J.’s circle of friends, you’d think you’d want to outgrow “My Boys” and move on to something more sophisticated. But at a time when new sitcoms are so rare and so few are worth watching (if you don’t believe me, check out the excruciating “House of Payne” and the mystifyingly lame “Bill Engvall Show”), “My Boys” stands out. Besides, who wants to get rid of an old shoe when it’s so darned comfortable?

Boys will be boys

... So it was like 73 degrees this morning when I left for work. It was raining. But it was 73 degrees. On November 29. Crazy.

... Then I get to work, and my cohorts start talking about the warm weather. A couple of people actually pulled out the short sleeves ...

... But my cohort Bill had to ruin all our fun by telling us the temperature was supposed to drop steadily this afternoon and it might be snowing tonight. And suddenly the talk turned to shoveling heavy snow. And starting up snowblowers. And wishing your neighbors would shovel your snow for you and ...

I hate winter.

* * *

... A few of us got a look today at a couple of the entries for our Christmas coloring contest ...

... Liz remembered doing the contest when she was a kid and said she always felt screwed because she'd see the winners and their entries in the paper. And they were never as good as hers. She says she actually glued cotton balls to her coloring for Santa's beard ...

... I remembered entering a coloring contest when I was a kid too. And I remembered how I was so upset and jealous when I found out my brother had won the contest that I started throwing out my coloring supplies and trashing my colorings ... then my parents had to settle me down and tell me that I was just as good as my brother ...

* * *

... I watched "My Boys" over my lunch break ...

Eh.

The new show, which premiered last night and will air on TBS every Tuesday, is about PJ, "a twenty-something sports reporter for the Chicago Sun Times. At first glance, she’s a typical young single woman-- smart, attractive, outgoing, personable. Her boys are her family, which sometimes hinders PJ's dating life, as the men she tries to date don't know how to react to her unconventional interests and the all-important men in her life."

... In the first episode, PJ meets up with the new sportswriter in town, Bobby, and the pair promptly hits it off. But Bobby gets freaked out by PJ's guy-like approach to things ... and later she tries to clear things up with him, in the Cubs locker room, with a bunch of hard-to-interpret analogies suggesting they keep their relationship on the down-low, somehow comparing their relationship to having hamburgers at the Billy Goat Tavern ...

The show is littered with references to Chicago neighborhoods, landmarks and culture, not to mention the Cubs and the Bears. And Jordana Spiro is adorable to watch as PJ. Plus the hilarious Jim Gaffigan plays her brother Andy ...

...But, in last night's two epiosdes at least, the acting isn't spectacular and PJ isn't so believable as a sports writer, much less a tom boy playing poker with a table full of guys. Plus the narration used throughout each episode, a la Carrie Bradshaw, doesn't work; in fact it's annoying ...

... The show comes off as a "Sex In The City" for guys, with PJ and the whole sports angle being the vehicles to keep us watching ...

... And though the show isn't great, I probably will keep watching because 1) There's nothing else I watch on Tuesday nights 2) It's about a sportswriter covering the Cubs for the Sun-Times 3) it's littered with references to Chicago neighborhoods, landmarks and culture 4) Jim Gaffigan's in it and 5) Jordana Spiro is adorable to watch ...

(The Seattle Post-Intelligencer gives it a decent review here ...and TVsquad reviews it here.)