Life: The Romantic Comedy

I’m not exactly sure how the network does it (if I were, I’d quit this blurb-writing job and produce my own sitcom). However, I suspect it has something to do with expert timing and a casting director who found incredible actors for every part, down to the best friends (Echo Kellum, Lucy Punch) and the 5-year-old daughter (Maggie Elizabeth Jones).

In the pilot, Ben establishes himself as a soon-to-be-classic TV idiot. With utterly misplaced confidence in himself, he crashes his ex-girlfriend’s wedding and spoils Kate’s hot date. “You know why I do stupid stuff like that?” he asks Kate as they contemplate the ruins of the day. “Because it’s fun.”

By all means, Ben, keep doing stupid stuff.

Vegas (9pm Tue, CBS)
Vegas claims to be based on the real story of Ralph Lamb, the sheriff who maintained law and order in the early years of the Las Vegas Strip. But it’s hard to see much realism in this new drama, which portrays Lamb (Dennis Quaid) as a John Wayne-style cowboy who can knock out three guys at a time with his bare hands. The pilot combines this Western influence with a mob drama and a police procedural, tossing in showgirl razzle-dazzle for good measure.

Sounds kind of fun, doesn’t it? It ought to be, but Quaid throws a wet blanket on the proceedings. He strikes manly poses with a perma-scowl, as if taking the nonsensical script seriously. In this telling, Sheriff Lamb’s rock-solid integrity is more than a match for the gangster (Michael Chiklis) intent on corrupting the Strip.

In real life, of course, rock-solid integrity had no place in Vegas. And it’s simply laughable in Vegas.