Burb Blurb

I caught up with ABC's Suburgatory.  In sort of a hammock slot between The Middle and Modern Family, it's the best of the new sitcoms I've seen this season (not to damn it with faint praise).  It's about George and Tessa Altman, a single dad and his teenage daughter, who move from Manhattan to the suburbs.

I was raised in the suburbs and have always been amused by writers and others who portray them as some sort of living death, a place of no culture and stifling conformity.  Seems to me there's a good argument it's the best of both worlds, since you're close enough to both the city and the country to enjoy what they have to offer without suffering from the negative sides.  Regardless, our culture is now open enough that I don't think growing up in the suburbs is that different from living anywhere else.

But that's not the thesis of Suburgatory.  Tessa hasn't moved that many miles north of her beloved Washington Square Park, but it's a different world.  The oddest things to her is all the zombie-like moms, who try to stay young and hip and perfect while raising their mean-girl daughters. It was odd to me too, since I don't recognize the caricature from any suburb I'm familiar with. (Though this was a highly affluent suburb--maybe they're different.) More familiar--indeed, satirical mainstays--was the emphasis on malls and manicured lawns.

But what attacking the suburbs lacks in imagination, the show makes up for in charm and wit.  It still has a way to go, but there were enough decent observations and funny moments to make it worth checking out.  To last as a series, though, I imagine many of the caricatures will have to turn into recognizable human beings.

There are a lot of familiar faces--Jeremy Sisto, Cheryl Hines, Alan Tudyk, Ana Gasteyer, Rex Lee, Chris Parnell--but it rests on the shoulders of Jane Levy, who plays Tessa.  I'm not familiar with Levy, but she seems up to the task.