How about that? I thought the label "Dumbass TV" was redundant decades ago.

I have always had a thing for Jenna Elfman. I don't know exactly what it is , but I find her incredibly sexy. But this show sounds dreadful enough to keep me from even attempting to watch it.


ABC's new 'Imaginary Mary' best left unseen - PressReader

by Kevin McDonough of United Features Syndicate

Most bad TV shows are predictable, unoriginal and depressingly so. “Man With a Plan” comes to mind. Every so often a show arrives so gloriously strange and dreadful that attention must be paid. “Imaginary Mary” (8:30 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) is that kind of show.

“Imaginary” takes a “cute” idea well beyond the realm of creepy to the borders of disturbing without ever becoming funny. Jenna Elfman (“Dharma & Greg”) stars as Alice, a feisty PR executive who convinces herself that she doesn’t need men until she meets Ben (Stephen Schneider), a strenuously nice guy in the Bob Saget (“Full House”) mold.

In a normal bad comedy, Alice would awkwardly settle into domesticity with eager-to-please Ben and his children, Andy (Nicholas Coombe), a gawky adolescent; Dora (Matreya Scarrwener), a smug, judgmental teen; and Bunny (Erica Tremblay), a child filled with unanswerable questions about life and, more often, death.

But this show has something extra, and that is Mary, a CGI depiction of Alice’s childhood imaginary friend, a noseless, fluffy, doll-like creature voiced by Rachel Dratch. In an introduction, we learn that Mary emerged during the painful divorce of Alice’s parents and that Mary helped the sad child assert herself in times of pain.

Mary takes credit for Alice’s business success and fierce independence, but she also feels threatened when Alice becomes happily engaged with other people. In a telling moment, Mary vanished the first time Alice had sex.

So, in short, Mary is a manifestation of dangerous and self-destructive emotional impulses, a haunting presence threatened by Alice’s adjustment to adulthood.

Following a tradition as old as “Harvey,” “Topper” and CBS’ stillborn “Angel From Hell,” “Mary” also reflects the success of two “Ted” movies and is a tad raunchy. Mary may be threatened by Alice’s physical intimacy with Ben, but she also wants to watch. Call me old-fashioned (or well-adjusted), but I never want to watch “Imaginary Mary” again.

TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.