Previewing SMILF

Showtime recently premiered White Famous loosely based on executive producer Jamie Foxx’s life as he transitioned from stand up to actor. I spend most of my time wondering just how loosely is it based on his life? Did he sleep with his agent’s ex-boss? What show is Angry Black supposed to be on his resume? Who is Michael Rappaport supposed to be? Or is basically, stand up turned actor with a baby mama trying to be white famous and basically everything else is made up?

Starting this week, White Famous is going to be paired with another semi-autobiographical show based on the creator’s life called SMILF. Okay, let us get this out of the way first: SMILF is a horrible name for a television right up there with Better off Ted as the worst of all time. Even the titular character knows how icky that name is when someone calls her that (for those that cannot figure it out, Eleanor from The Good Place would call her a “Single Mother I’d Like to Fork”). Okay, enough with that.

Where Jamie Foxx came up in the nineties where there is not much personal information readily available on the internet and any relation to Floyd Mooney; just a look at Frankie Shaw’s (Mr. Robot) Wikipedia page shows just how much she shares with SMILF’s Bridgette. They are both from Boston, and have a baby daddy who went on to date an extremely attractive Australian. So when SMILF’s Nelson (Samara Weaving, Ash vs. the Evil Dead) says she was named after the saintly Nelson Mandela, it could not make me wonder if Teresa Palmer happened to be named after Mother Teresa.

Yeah, I am not sure if Teresa Palmer, Frankie’s real life baby daddy’s now wife, will want to watch SMILF. In the first episode she is calls her by a name that references one of her amble body parts (only behind her back of course) and later during a Google session of the ex’s new beau, something we all have done, Bridgette goes somewhere I personally I have never gone while cyberstalking one of them. Then in the second episode we learn of Nelson’s irrational love of standing in line. Although, I have to say, no matter how bad she comes across, Nelson is by far my favorite character on the show.

And that really is because as bad as Shaw may make Nelson look; Bridgette comes off looking a lot worse. That post-college time is a time of trial of error and doing plenty of stupid kid, a time that can make for a funny television show. But when that twenty-something has a kid, it makes that moment more cringe worthy than funny. Especially when she covers up her kid in her studio apartment to have sex with a dude for the first time since having a kid. Which of makes this the perfect pair for Shameless (which premieres at 9:00 the same night), Fiona and Bridgette are essentially the same person in someone different situations. The only thing is the Gallaghers come off as cartoony but SMILF just feels a little more real despite about one dream sequence per episode.

Almost as depressing is Rosie O’Donnell (Exit to Eden) who definitely looks like a beleaguered grandmother from the lower middle class. Sure, she will probably get an Emmy for this role, but I think it will be more as a troll to the president than because she is the funniest supporting lady on television. Then the baby daddy played by Miguel Gomez (The Strain) who is a boring as the real life baby day who has an IMDB with movies I have seen but cannot place him in any of them. But he has hooked up with Frankie Shaw and Teresa Palmer so clearly he is doing something right.

SMILF airs Sundays at 10:00 on Showtime.