TV Review: Humor Isn’t Home in ‘Are You There, Chelsea?’

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CHICAGO – NBC’s “Whitney” has become an online punching bag this season as Whitney Cummings’ mediocre sitcom dared invade the space occupied by programs like critical darlings “Community,” “30 Rock,” and “The Office.” It was like an icky girl trying to join a pre-teen boy’s club in a treehouse and bringing nothing but cooties. Well, the girl has a friend now.

Television Rating: 2.0/5.0

“Whitney” haters will have a new target with the premiere tonight of the just-as-mediocre “Are You There, Chelsea?,” another comedy that’s far from the worst thing on TV but doesn’t come anywhere near the best either. But, more importantly, doesn’t fit on NBC with its broad humor (no pun intended), laugh track, and stressed punchlines. The reason so many people hate “Whitney” and will hate “Chelsea” is not that they’re horrible — they’re not — but because they’re NOTHING like the show that many think they’re pushing off the peacock network — Bring back “Community.”

Are You There, Chelsea
Photo credit: NBC

Based on the bestselling book, “Are You There Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea” by Chelsea Handler, this is essentially another working class relationship sitcom in that it’s about a bartender who drinks too much and tries to live life to the fullest. Romance will surely play a role but, as emphasized in at least three separate punchlines, Chelsea (played in the sitcom by Laura Prepon of “That ’70s Show”) has to be on top. The concept is that this version of Chelsea is an unapologetic force of nature, someone who has little shame and takes no crap from anyone. While that might have worked on cable, it feels oddly neutered here, in no small part due to the fact that Prepon isn’t quite believable as an hard-living, bar-hopping alcoholic. She looks too straight-laced. But it’s not her fault as much as it is the writers who think just having a drink or two qualifies as dark humor on NBC.

Are You There, Chelsea Photo credit: NBC

The premiere opens with Chelsea in a prison cell for intoxication and takes mere seconds before it gets to a lesbian joke, of course, and minutes before the fictional Handler is praying to her real God, vodka. She’s bailed out by her born-again Christian sister Sloane (the actual Chelsea Handler), who is very pregnant in the premiere and a new mom in later episodes. She’s meant to be the voice of reason to off-set the wacky behavior of her careless sister (and, believe it or not, the scenes between the fictional and real Handler are the best in the episodes I’ve seen…Chelsea has the best comic timing on the show).

The fictional Handler works at a bar with a hot bartender named Rick (Jake McDorman), a waitress named Olivia (Ali Wong), and a little person named Todd (Mark Povinelli). Also circling Chelsea’s world just enough to provide comic relief are a socially-awkward roommate Dee Dee (Lauren Lapkus) and her gregarious father Melvin (Lenny Clarke). In the first episode, Chelsea gets a new apartment in drunken walking distance from her job.

There have been comedy premieres recently that provoked pure anger (“Work It,” “I Hate My Teenage Daughter”) and I have to say that “Are You There, Chelsea?” isn’t nearly that awful. It produces more of a critical shrug than anything else. Prepon is miscast but she’s always had solid comic timing and Lapkus, Handler, and Clarke actually get a few laughs in the supporting cast. The problem is that it isn’t nearly good either. There’s a desperate, forced quality here (especially in the INCREDIBLY over-played laugh track, which could only be real if the audience was given laughing gas or told that those who didn’t cackle like they had never seen a sitcom before would be executed) that adds a distinct stench of failure to the production. The cast here is undeniably more experienced and more talented than “Whitney” but the writing is just as weak (arguably weaker), hitting the same jokes multiple times and misunderstanding the concept of edgy humor. Oooh, a bartender who drinks? Shocking.

Everything about “Are You There, Chelsea?” comes from the broad stroke book of comedy writing. Her new roommate can’t just be unlike her — she has to be a virgin. The lead can’t actually be sexually promiscuous because she can’t find a guy who likes her to be on top (the idea that a one-night stand with Rick fell apart because they both wanted to be on top, a bad joke which is repeated, is considered great, character-defining humor here but it just comes off as ridiculous). Don’t find a joke funny the first time? Don’t worry. You’ll almost certainly hear it again.

I know it will probably never happen, but I’d love “Are You There, Chelsea?” to actually take itself seriously and find the humor in the truth of characters like these instead of the stereotypes. We’ve seen hard-drinking, hard-living characters used for comedic effect before but it can’t be this tame a version of it. Lose the laugh track. Let the show get actually dirty. Quit playing games and do something that feels real. Or we won’t let you back into our clubhouse.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com