I eagerly awaited the Fat Actress premiere on Showtime. I have been a fan of Kirstie Alley for some time now, and I love Curb Your Enthusiasm, another racy semi-improved sitcom, like this one. Well, I watched the premiere and to tell you the truth I'm a little disappointed. Kirstie Alley is hilarious, and every scene she's in is funny. But she cannot carry the whole show for 30 minutes. The one big problem is that the supporting characters are not funny at all. Alley's agent, played by MadTv alum Michael McDonald, is left with nothing to do but to sit behind his desk and talk to Alley over the phone. On MadTv MCDonald always was hilarious as nutty, weird characters, but on this show, he's the normal one, while Alley is the wacko. And his character just doesn't work. Neither do the characters of Alley's personal assistant, Eddie, and Alley's makeup girl Kevyn. While Rachel Harris, a regular panelist on VH1's Best Week Ever, is very funny, she isn't given enough to do, and her character is just bland. And Bryan Callen, who plays Eddie, is another MadTv vet. He wasn't funny on MadTv, and he isn't funny here. I don't know how many episodes Jeff Zucker is going to play himself in, but there is a real reason why he works BEHIND the scenes at NBC...he simply cannot act. No matter how funny Kirstie Alley is in their scenes together, he resembles lifeless cardboard.
I hope in future episodes that the supporting characters are fleshed out and given more interesting things to do.
In Curb Your Enthusiasm, the show that Fat Actress most resembles, everyone is funny, but in this show only Kirstie Alley is funny. And for now, that really fine with me.
I hope in future episodes that the supporting characters are fleshed out and given more interesting things to do.
In Curb Your Enthusiasm, the show that Fat Actress most resembles, everyone is funny, but in this show only Kirstie Alley is funny. And for now, that really fine with me.