What’s this show called … My Boys?

When My Boys premiered in 2006, I was totally not into the idea of a show about a female sportswriter who was essentially “one of the boys” among her all-male group of friends. Besides, who ever heard of TBS airing original programming? The entire thing was weird.

But here and there I’ve found myself catching an episode or two. I don’t know that much about the characters, but I’ve seen enough to have developed a few opinions of my own. I’m down with PJ (Jordana Spiro) … at least after season one or two, when she transformed from the character I described above to an actual person of her own. Bobby’s (Kyle Howard) fun, but I always thought he’d lose a part of himself if involved with PJ as more than friends.

Brendan’s generally amusing, and I like Reid Scott a lot. He seems somewhat out of place on The Big C because the role requires he appear a bunch of years older than his character on My Boys. Mike’s (Jamie Kaler) a horror of a human being, and while I believe he’s friends with Kenny (Michael Bunin) — who’s no joy himself — I can’t understand why anyone else in the group spends time with him. And Stephanie’s (Kellee Stewart) meant to seem the odd duck, but I think the show may have gone a bit too far with her … Stephanie and PJ make no sense in the same room together, let alone as best friends.

And I liked Andy (Jim Gaffigan), but he’s long gone to who knows where. It’s a shame, because he was a strong part of what made the show what it was.

Anyway, last week season four concluded with a pair of episodes, and I decided to check in and see what everyone was up to. Mike was dating a new woman, Marcia (Rachael Harris), and Stephanie and PJ were trying to convince Mike to come clean to Marcia about the fact that he didn’t actually live in Andy’s old house.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group was trying to solve their bar problem: Crowley’s had been overrun with a younger crowd, and the gang went bar shopping for a new place to hang out. When that didn’t work, they looked to turn Crowley’s into the worst bar ever in order to drive the interlopers out.

Mike’s apartment was funny, and in particular I enjoyed the Chinese food stored in a tennis ball container. But I’m not particularly wild about the way in which Rachael Harris is being used. Maybe this is her regular character and I’m just not used to seeing her with a guy, but her edge was somewhat too hard and crusty here.

In general the show excels when there’s a real plot that’s driving one or two of the characters and catching everyone else up in its wake. That wasn’t really the case where the bar was concerned. I loved everyone getting up on that little stage and doing their worst, don’t get me wrong, but there was nothing uniquely any of the characters about what was happening, so while it was fun, it wasn’t exactly a story-full episode.

The finale, on the other hand, did have everyone running around in their own sphere. PJ fell under the spell of Jack Briscoe (Jay Tarses) once again, the seasoned reporter who I’ve never seen do more for her than belittle her talent and ability. But when Jack says jump…. PJ was working her tail off (for twenty whole minutes!) trying to land Jack’s front page column. I could have told her she didn’t have the dedication for it.

Mike wanted to throw Marcia a birthday party, and enlisted Kenny and the boys to help. Kenny, currently trying to get his new venture “Kenny’s Closets” off the ground, ran with the party organizer gig and had Bobby running around in circles. But “Bobby PJ’s boyfriend” is an unformed person, so while there could have been a lot more to the joke he was only a whiny annoyance as the put-upon slave.

Stephanie, meanwhile, was seeing even more unlikely success with her book, and she’d been booked as a panelist on a British talk show with two other uninformed sources on relationships. I’d say good riddance to her for three months, but I assume her time in London will occur over the hiatus. And as much as I dislike both characters, her and Kenny’s pairing is the poorest jamming together of mismatched puzzle pieces I’ve ever seen.

Brendan floated in and out as always, which is a real shame on the show. But when he does appear it’s usually in an enjoyable fashion — this time around he surprised everyone with the news that he’d bought Crowley’s after Crowley announced that he was selling the building. It sounded like one of those predictable outcomes, but then you stop and think about the source — Brendan, who started this show crashing with PJ, newly broken up with the love of his life, unemployable and with nothing to show for himself, had found success with a club, moved out of PJ’s apartment, and bought the bar that they called home.

As a place to end a season it was a bit off (even with the wedding), but as a progression in the life of a character it was huge. I’m not sure I’d like Brendan as much as a successful guy — Scott’s more likable here than on The Big C — but he definitely seems to have put in the hard work to get where he now is.

I’m glad I checked back in with My Boys. While I still don’t see myself marking my calendar for its season five return, it definitely remains a solid catch-it-sporadically-online show for me.

And maybe Andy can return in place of Stephanie and Kenny?

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Sep 20, 2010 @ 12:00 EST5EDT