'Perfect Couples' Premiere Episodes

Perfect Couples is far from perfect; its three main couples represent one-dimensional clichés about romantic relationships, and its schematic view of gender roles is both tired and unfunny.

The latest addition to NBC’s Thursday-night lineup dilutes the brand even further, invading the lineup of mostly clever, unconventional comedies with a flat retread of sitcoms past, featuring three bland couples each embodying a set of unoriginal gender stereotypes. For a while NBC was putting out one innovative comedy after another, but this season with Outsourced (which at least takes place in a novel cultural milieu) and now Perfect Couples, the network seems to be taking a few steps back. I doubt that fans of 30 Rock or Community or The Office will find much to like in Perfect Couples.

Possibly the first sign of disaster here is Kyle Bornheimer, who has become the king of terrible failed sitcoms in the last few years after co-starring on Worst Week and Romantically Challenged. He’s just as much of a non-presence here as he was in those other shows, and I really don’t know why he keeps getting work. Bornheimer plays one half of the most “normal” couple on the show, and Christine Woods plays his wife, possibly the only appealing character Couples has. Far more annoying are the other two couples: the overdramatic lovers who fight and make up with equal zest (David Walton and Mary Elizabeth Ellis) and the touchy-feely couple whose every move comes out of a self-help book (Hayes MacArthur and Olivia Munn). The show takes these one-dimensional traits to the extreme, and by the third episode I wanted to strangle nearly every one of these characters. None of them comes off remotely like a human being, let alone a person who is deeply in love.

There’s so little to distinguish Couples from so many other bland contemporary relationship sitcoms (including Bornheimer’s mercifully short-lived Romantically Challenged) that it’s hard to imagine it garnering much of a following. The sooner this show lives up to the Bornheimer curse and gets canceled, the sooner NBC can find a fresh project that’s worthy of the company it keeps on Thursday nights.

Disclosure: A review screener was provided by the network. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.