Married To The Worst

I caught two single-camera sitcoms that just debuted on FX, Married and You're The Worst.

Married, about a marriage with kids that's become somewhat tired, stars familiar faces Judy Greer and Nat Faxon.  Their sidekicks, also names if not quite as familiar, are Jenny Slate, Brett Gelman and John Hodgman.  The central plot of the pilot has Greer not willing to put out, so she tells her husband to go find someone else.  He actually gets with a gal who could be a mistress, but through complications never has sex with her.

That's pretty much it.  I like Greer but she didn't have too much to do except be the tired wife.  I'm not quite as thrilled by Faxon, but it was his episode, as we saw his adventures.  It feels like we've seen this sort of thing before, and seen it done better.  The wisecracks from the friends weren't much and the overall plot didn't add up to much.  It was a bit raunchier than we're used to on basic cable, with Faxon masturbating (under the sheets) within the first few minutes--but it's still not brave enough to let Faxon have sex outside his marriage.  I like Greer enough to give it another chance, but it better get smarter pretty quickly.

A bit better is You're The Worst, featuring actors I'm not familiar with.    Chris Geere is Jimmy and Aya Cash Gretchen. They meet at a wedding where he's telling off the bride whom he used to date, and she's stealing wedding gifts.  They're both awful, cynical people, so, of course, they have a wild night of sex.  But she stays till the morning and, through various complications, they realize, after hating each other, that there's a spark.

What's good about the show is there is that spark.  They've got chemistry, and even if they're cynical, they also have feelings. In addition, they're not stupid, plus they have interesting jobs--he's a writer and she's a publicist--that play a part in the show.  The sidekicks--Jimmy's mentally troubled roommate, and Gretchen's equally cynical girlfriend--didn't deliver too much. They may be needed as sounding boards, but they mostly slowed down the action.  I'd rather see the central couple, both at work and mixing together.

The show is even raunchier than Married--we see fairly explicit episodes, for instance, of cunnilingus and fellatio.  It's rated TV Mature, and I wouldn't be surprised if it got an R in a movie theatre.

You're The Worst isn't much, yet, but I'm willing to see how it develops.

PS  Both shows featured lead characters smoking.  These days this seems more daring than showing sex.