2 Broke Girls- Season 1 (TV Series)

left: Max (Dennings) and Caroline (Behrs)

Before ‘2 Broke Girls’, I would’ve said that the half-an-hour laugh-track sitcom was dead. Or at least dead to me. After dipping in and out of several other CBS sitcoms such as 'How I Met Your Mother', 'Rules of Engagement' and the dreadfully unfunny 'Two and a Half Men', I’d already said “no” to '2 Broke Girls' before I’d even given it a chance. But as time went on and critical buzz continued, I decided to give the show a viewing.

The show follows the brazen and sharp-tongued Max Black (Kat Dennings) who works in a diner in Brooklyn, New York. In the first episode she is accompanied by Caroline Channing (Beth Behrs) a sweet, ultra girly (ex) heiress who is forced into the working class after her father is arrested for embezzlement, therefore losing everything she’s ever had. The binaries of the two character personalities are an obvious premise for a sitcom, but it still makes for interesting and watchable television.

Max and show-saver Earl (Morris)

What actually saves this show from just being another middling sitcom among a wave of others is Caroline’s idea for the two to start a cupcake business, where the pair would “only” need to save $250,000 to open up their own  shop. The end of every episode ends with a tally of how much Max and Caroline have made (and sometimes lost) throughout the show. It is this defining feature that has kept me coming back episode after episode.

Truth be told, '2 Broke Girls' isn’t necessarily always laugh out loud hilarious. The show contains maybe three or four chuckles an episode, mostly coming from the fact that the show is pushing the boundaries of sexual innuendo for the often prudish prime time American schedule. Other characters in the diner such as chef Oleg (Jonathan Kite) and owner Han (Matthew Moy) are for the most part, two-dimensional racial stereotypes. However Earl (Garrett Morris) the cashier and Max’s father figure of the show is a great, if not the greatest character in this bumpy but enjoyable female-led sitcom.

C+

Key Episodes: “And The Rich People Problems” “And The Broken Hearts” “And The One-Night Stands”