By Chris Ryall
June 17, 2003
Oh my gawd. As if the end of the work week wasn't enough reason to go out on Friday nights, now you have another -- you could accidentally skim by this new show and find yourself afflicted with hysterical blindness after only a few minutes.
I just want to be clear and say that the above is the only time you'll see the word "hysterical" used in this write-up.
HOPE AND FAITH stars Faith Ford and Regis' ever-pregnant morning co-host, Kelly Ripa. But see, the comedy here is that Faith Ford plays a woman named Hope and not Faith and...well, sure, I know that's not funny and you know it, but really, it's all this show has. Both women used to seem capable of more impressive work, but after watching this, I'm starting to realize that I might have given them too much credit.
Faith Ford's Hope is a stay-at-home mom raising three kids while also sharing her house with her father, Harve Presnell (a long way from FARGO) and her carefree sister Faith. Ripa's Faith is a mostly brainless, careless soap opera star whose character was just written off her soap, THE SACRED AND THE SINFUL. As a result, the formerly spoiled and rich soap star is now...I don't know, aimless, depressed and completely defiant of her older sister's parental rules. She takes Hope's 13-year-old daughter out of school to get her some trendy clothes. She repeatedly drives the car into the garage wall, knocking drawers open in the kitchen (where hilarity rather than shock and anger ensues, of course). Hope is the older, sensible sister with family responsiblities and Faith is the loose, semi-bad influence on the teenage daughter (who even pulls some "I wish HOPE was my mother!" histrionics with barely any provocation). And both are completely bereft of any ability to underplay their material. One is prudish to the extreme (Hope, a married mother, has never even heard of crotchless underwear before?) and the other is an unrepentant ditz.
As far as sitcoms go, this one plays every card it has -- opposite personalities living under the same roof, a cranky old dad throwing out the occasional insult about his ineffectual son-in-law, rebellious teen daughter and younger siblings, too...oh, yeah, this show has ABC Friday Night written all over it. Only minus any humor (also a Friday night ABC staple). But as I'm seeing more and more, humor no longer seems to be a prerequsite for a lot of new sitcoms.
ABC's HOPE AND FAITH airs this Fall on Fridays at 8:00 PM.
Next Week: WB's TARZAN AND JANE
E-MAIL CHRIS RYALL | ARCHIVES
