Welcome to the first edition of 1 Season Wonder during Maroon May 2015.
As always (sometimes), here's how it goes.
I scour across the Internet and find TV s hows with only 1 season, watch them, see if I enjoyed them, talk about them here and put them in a list of 1-Season Wonders. It sounds easy as it looks, right? No, you actually have to find these shows, watch through them hoping they're not as painful as they were the first time, and debate with yourself to see if it makes the list. If that sounds challenging and you want it that way, then let's do it.
In the age of the Internet and social media, people everywhere are finding love in many places: some good, some oh-so wrong. One example has found love in an oh-so wrong place. And yet, that was just the beginning.
It’s Accidentally on Purpose.
Billie Chase is a successful 30-something film critic in San Francisco. During one night at a bar with her sister Abby and friend Olivia, she meets Zack, an aspiring chef in his 20s. After a nice talk, they hit it off and drive to his friend Davis’ house, where they engage in a one-night stand. Months later, to her horror (and Abby’s excitement and Olivia’s mocking), Billie finds out that she’s pregnant with Zack’s child. Since then, she tries to navigate through life now as a pregnant woman and co-parent of the child with a man who’s barely an adult.
During the 18 episodes that air, Billie, Zack and their friends go an emotional (but mostly funny) roller coaster ride that includes being better people, seeing life in a different light, coming together as a new, closer family and bonding together when they thought it really wouldn’t happen. All while Billie’s pregnancy progresses and comes to full term. All the way till the very end when she gives birth to their child, and they get married.
This series was not only one of my favorite comedy series of that season, it was also one of my favorite shows of that season. It has humor that lands well, hot actresses for days, and a very wonderful storyline of a woman who has a child with a younger man. (!!) Something not many dramas ever do. Now, that is just sweet. The last show I could remember would do this was Murphy Brown, and that show began years before I was even born.
When I heard it got cancelled by CBS in May 2009, I was hurt. I hoped this show would return, so I can see the exploits of Zallie (their ship name; I hate those) and their child, along with Abby being (or at least trying to be) a great aunt, Olivia being a great godmother while still being a foul-mouthed, drinking, not-giving-a-shit woman who’s still a force to reckon with, Davis will be (slightly) less of a mooching slacker, and there will be more stories to behold and enjoy.
I like almost of the cast: Jenna Elfman is amazing as Billie, Jon Foster is great and really attractive as Zack, Ashley Jensen is fantastic and downright hilarious as Olivia, Lennon Parham is perfect as Abby, Nicholas Wright just makes it work well as Davis and Grant Show is really good as James. All of these cast members characters mesh well with each other, and make the show...as least, enjoyable.
I will admit: from watching this series when it first aired, I was annoyed by Abby and Davis a lot. Abby is this whenever she talked. Yes, she’s looking out for Billie and wants what’s best for her; Davis has NO excuse. The things she says and the way she says them irritate me near to death. Davis just makes me want to stab my ears with a screwdriver...and then do it again. Also, the fact that Zack’s crew keeps going on about the fact that he nailed AND knocked up an older woman is a major detraction...and it’s annoying.
Also, Davis seemed annoying as well, being a lazy, idiotic, unmotivated food-vacuum of a slacker whose existence is just to eat and mooch off other people. But he does have some funny moments. Sure they’re not as refined (if you know what I mean) as the other humor from some of the other sitcoms of the one season it aired as a part of.
Sure, this show has some corny humor like in “The Date”, Zack is playing a Wii Figure Skating game just to see up the female skater’s skirt or in another episode when he has a date over and they try to have sex in the nursery, but can’t because he sees bears on the wall that represent his conflicting emotion; should he do it where his future child sleeps or not or not because that’s where his future child sleeps. Also, in “Fight Club”, where Zack has to piss, but because his toilet can’t work anymore and has been removed, he goes to Billie’s and unexpectedly pees on her while she’s using it!! Sure, it’s not the best humor people want, but I freaking enjoyed it, because I’m a guy who has many different tastes, but I don’t do stupid, corny, terrible shows. And Accidentally is not stupid, corny and terrible (at least to me). But take that away from the bigger picture and you’ve got pretty fresh writing and a really funny cast for a sitcom. Yes, it’s not one of the best, but it’s CBS in the late 2000s; the shows that aired on it had dialogue that ranged from excellent from terrible. And this was somewhere in between,
Plus, on a side note, the black guy in Zack and Davis’ group of friends is played two actors: By an unknown actor in “Pilot” and then by Pooch Hall (of The Game fame) from "Memento" onward. Just...putting that out there.
In conclusion, while this show wasn’t the best sitcom on CBS at the time of airing, Accidentally on Purpose was an enjoyable series to kill time for a all the reasons I’ve stated. It’s a lovely baby story about two people in two different leagues coming together (through a one-night stand) in a to create life and, along with their friends, become different, better people. Isn’t that what you would need in a sitcom? Well, that is if you want
The entire series is available on DVD, and shown in its entirety on YouTube.
I really loved this series the first time around and I still enjoy it the second time around. And, as you've read this review, that you will too, if you give it a chance. Again, it's not the best sitcoms to come out of 2009, but it was one of the most enjoyable, and funny.
And there it is: Accidentally on Purpose, the tenth addition to the list of 1 Season Wonders, and the constant reminder that I should thank God that it didn't happen to me. And that CBS is a swift, scary demon business.
Thanks for joining me and tune in next week for another edition during Maroon May.
Good night, and may your choices in Short-lived TV be yours.
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