'Working Class' Premiere Episodes

Working Class is yet another bargain-basement basic-cable sitcom that replicates the lame jokes and predictable storylines of shows from past decades without bringing anything remotely new or creative to the experience.

The folks at CMT must have taken a look at what’s going on at TV Land, ABC Family and TBS and decided they needed to get on the retro-sitcom bandwagon posthaste. Somehow, though, Working Class looks even cheaper and feels even more recycled than the likes of Hot in Cleveland, Melissa & Joey and Are We There Yet?, and that’s quite the dubious achievement. News articles about the show have touted its cost-cutting measures, and every penny saved is right there on the screen: Sometimes you wonder if the sets might be ready to fall apart when the actors lean on them too heavily.

The low-budget look might be forgivable if the writing or acting were any better, but the jokes are just as stale as those on the other basic-cable retro-coms, and while star Melissa Peterman (late of Reba) is trying really hard, all of her spunk can’t make up for the listlessness of the characters and premise. The show Working Class most resembles is Grace Under Fire, which also focused on a blue-collar single mom trying to make ends meet while teaching her kids good values and fending off various exes. But while it’s great to see the struggles of working-class people reflected on TV, Working Class itself has little connection to any current social reality, and its scenarios are just as sitcom convenient as those on shows about middle- and upper-class characters.

Peterman’s Carli aside, the cast is pretty dreadful; Carli’s whiny kids and freeloading brother are bland and one-note, and TV veteran Ed Asner pretty much sleepwalks through his part as Carli’s irascible co-worker at her supermarket-deli job. A show like this only works if you want to spend time with these people every week, since it’s not like you’re going to be surprised by the writing or the plotting. When the characters are as dull as those on Working Class, all you’re left with is white noise to leave on while you fold your laundry. And if that’s all CMT is going to offer, they might as well stick to country music videos.

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