Previewing Happy Endings

There are basically three types of sitcoms: the kinds that you quote for days after an episode airs (raise your hand is you repeated Raj Koothrappali’s newest drunken catch phrase repeatedly since he uttered it last Thursday), the kind where you laugh about as much as a viewing of Schindler’s List, and the kind where after viewing you remember laughing few times, but cannot remember what exactly was funny about it. Happy Endings falls into the third category.

Happy Endings follows a six pack of Friends in various states of relationship. In the premiere tonight, Elisha Cuthbert (House of Wax) leaves Zachary Knighton (Surfer, Dude) at the altar putting their status within the group in question. Caught in the middle are their married friends Eliza Coupe (Scrubs) and Damon Wayans, Jr. (Dance Flick) as well as single Casey Wilson (Saturday Night Live) and Adam Pally (Taking Woodstock) who are just looking for a good man, or most times, an available one.

Going with the bad new first, Happing Endings is coming out after each network debuted their own Friends revival (Perfect Couples, Better with You, Mad Love, Traffic Light, but it did beat out Friends with Benefits which still does not have an airdate) but the good news is it is the funniest of the bunch, which, of course does not say much. Still you have to scratch your head at the person who thought Cuthbert would be decent on a comedy and Knighton, who has about as much comedy in his background, does about as good as delivering a laugh line. Coupe clearly has the best chops on in the cast, but much like Olivia Munn, she is stuck in the uptight housewife role. And with a name like Damon Wayans, I expected more from the comedian that playing Coupe’s lapdog husband. Then there is who Pally plays the straightest gay homosexual on television since Will Truman but it is clear most of his “gay” jokes were written by heterosexuals.

With its shortcomings, there are still enough laughs to keep me watching including a spit your drink moment in the premiere when Knighton founds something out about a new beau he tries to make Cuthbert jealous. And every episode seems to have one completely out of left field joke that will make you rewind to make sure you heard what you think you just heard. It is too bad they did not go all out and add even more of those jokes throughout the episodes.

Happy Endings premieres tonight at 9:30 with back to back episodes and regularly airs Wednesdays at 10:00 starting next week. There are currently pages for the show on Hulu and iTunes so presumably you will be able to stream and download the episodes there after they air.