'My Boys': Danke schein?

The season finale of "My Boys" was cleverly titled "Rome, If You Want To" (after the B-52's song "Roam"), but maybe it should have been called "The One That's Like 'Friends' and 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off.' "

Perhaps it was inevitable that the Chicago-set sitcom would feature an homage to the 1986 John Hughes film, and in a way it paid off in a Chicago Tourism Board sense.  The exterior shots of the Art Institute, Sears Tower and Lake Michigan were all beautiful.  But occasionally the writing on "My Boys" shoehorns in the Windy City, and this was one of those times.  Why only now would P.J. (Jordana Spiro) and her friends decide to take in the sights?  So often on "My Boys" the Chicago references are knowing and winking, but this time they seemed like they came from someone who had spent a weekend in the town but had seen "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" 50 times.

The main plot point of the finale began with a promising story line that the show has explored before: P.J.'s new boyfriend Evan (Michael Landes) finds it difficult to break into the group of guys she constantly surrounds herself with.  This was an issue left unresolved last season, with the apparent solution in the finale to have P.J. hook up in-group with her friend Brendan (Reid Scott).

It's never-ending!

The cast of characters, that is, on "My Boys."  One of the show's weaknesses in its premiere season last year was that it seemed to possess at least one too many boys.  Protagonist P.J. Franklin (Jordana Spiro) hung out with a circle of five guys: her brother Andy (Jim Gaffigan), cool hipster-type Brendan (Reid Scott), dorky Kenny (Michael Bunin), smarmy, conniving Mike (Jamie Kaler) and the other one, Bobby (Kyle Howard).  Plus, there's her best girlfriend, Stephanie (Kellee Stewart).  It was a little difficult to keep up with this large group, and even the writers seemed to have a hard time fitting everyone into the show.  Very often an episode would focus on P.J. and a few of the boys, and several others would have to grab some bench, to borrow some "My Boys" baseball parlance. 

It was the debut season, though, so it seemed plausible that the characters would get more settled in the second season.  That's a difficult task, however, when a guest character is introduced virtually every episode.  The season premiere, it was Nicole Sullivan, playing Kenny's pregnant girlfriend.  Last week, Jeremy Sisto made an appearance as an ex-flame of P.J.'s, whose temporariness became apparent the minute he announced that he was living in Seattle.  The city of Chicago is as integral to "My Boys" as New York was to "Sex and the City." 

Last season, TBS premiered the comedy series “My Boys,” a show with a light-looking plot about a tomboyish but beautiful young woman who lives in Chicago, covers the Cubs for the sports section of the Sun-Times and has a lot of guy friends, including a brother played by popular stand-up comic Jim Gaffigan.

The show was surprising in the entertainment it delivered in spite of its fluffy, “Friends”-like premise: there was no laugh track, which made some of the more absurdly funny lines stand out. For instance, in an episode from last season, P.J. (Jordana Spiro) criticized best friend Stephanie’s (Kellee Stewart) boyfriend for carrying a cane. When Stephanie explained that he needed it to walk, P.J. asked, “OK, but what about the top hat?”

It was promising to see good comedic writing too for female characters, as women still tend to be delegated the straight-man role in mixed-gender sitcoms.

The show arrives in its second season, with an appropriately more high-profile ad campaign (it helps that Gaffigan has made himself a regular guest on “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” with his “Pale Force” cartoon shorts).

The expectations are higher, though, for the second season, and the first two episodes illustrate some of the struggles that its writers might be having as the show tries to really figure out what it’s all about.

'My Boys': Full roster

It's never-ending!

The cast of characters, that is, on "My Boys."  One of the show's weaknesses in its premiere season last year was that it seemed to possess at least one too many boys.  Protagonist P.J. Franklin (Jordana Spiro) hung out with a circle of five guys: her brother Andy (Jim Gaffigan), cool hipster-type Brendan (Reid Scott), dorky Kenny (Michael Bunin), smarmy, conniving Mike (Jamie Kaler) and the other one, Bobby (Kyle Howard).  Plus, there's her best girlfriend, Stephanie (Kellee Stewart).  It was a little difficult to keep up with this large group, and even the writers seemed to have a hard time fitting everyone into the show.  Very often an episode would focus on P.J. and a few of the boys, and several others would have to grab some bench, to borrow some "My Boys" baseball parlance. 

It was the debut season, though, so it seemed plausible that the characters would get more settled in the second season.  That's a difficult task, however, when a guest character is introduced virtually every episode.  The season premiere, it was Nicole Sullivan, playing Kenny's pregnant girlfriend.  Last week, Jeremy Sisto made an appearance as an ex-flame of P.J.'s, whose temporariness became apparent the minute he announced that he was living in Seattle.  The city of Chicago is as integral to "My Boys" as New York was to "Sex and the City." 

Last season, TBS premiered the comedy series “My Boys,” a show with a light-looking plot about a tomboyish but beautiful young woman who lives in Chicago, covers the Cubs for the sports section of the Sun-Times and has a lot of guy friends, including a brother played by popular stand-up comic Jim Gaffigan.

The show was surprising in the entertainment it delivered in spite of its fluffy, “Friends”-like premise: there was no laugh track, which made some of the more absurdly funny lines stand out. For instance, in an episode from last season, P.J. (Jordana Spiro) criticized best friend Stephanie’s (Kellee Stewart) boyfriend for carrying a cane. When Stephanie explained that he needed it to walk, P.J. asked, “OK, but what about the top hat?”

It was promising to see good comedic writing too for female characters, as women still tend to be delegated the straight-man role in mixed-gender sitcoms.

The show arrives in its second season, with an appropriately more high-profile ad campaign (it helps that Gaffigan has made himself a regular guest on “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” with his “Pale Force” cartoon shorts).

The expectations are higher, though, for the second season, and the first two episodes illustrate some of the struggles that its writers might be having as the show tries to really figure out what it’s all about.

'My Boys': Friends with growing pains

Last season, TBS premiered the comedy series “My Boys,” a show with a light-looking plot about a tomboyish but beautiful young woman who lives in Chicago, covers the Cubs for the sports section of the Sun-Times and has a lot of guy friends, including a brother played by popular stand-up comic Jim Gaffigan.

The show was surprising in the entertainment it delivered in spite of its fluffy, “Friends”-like premise: there was no laugh track, which made some of the more absurdly funny lines stand out. For instance, in an episode from last season, P.J. (Jordana Spiro) criticized best friend Stephanie’s (Kellee Stewart) boyfriend for carrying a cane. When Stephanie explained that he needed it to walk, P.J. asked, “OK, but what about the top hat?”

It was promising to see good comedic writing too for female characters, as women still tend to be delegated the straight-man role in mixed-gender sitcoms.

The show arrives in its second season, with an appropriately more high-profile ad campaign (it helps that Gaffigan has made himself a regular guest on “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” with his “Pale Force” cartoon shorts).

The expectations are higher, though, for the second season, and the first two episodes illustrate some of the struggles that its writers might be having as the show tries to really figure out what it’s all about.