Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Anna Faris, Allison Janney, Sadie Calvano, Nate Corddry, Matt L. Jones, French Stewart, Spencer Daniels, Mimi Kennedy, Octavia Spencer, Kevin Pollak.
The dichotomy is sometimes astounding. The fundamental difference between an American comedy series and that of those that occasionally passes through its bigger silver screen cousin’s hands. Over the years, British television has had the honour of being able to show some of the great and memorable comedy shows, Cheers, Friends, Frasier, Seinfeld, Two and a Half Men, Third Rock From The Sun, Rosanne, Will and Grace, M*A*S*H and yet somehow being subjected to a multitude of what passes for comedy infiltrating its cinema. It feels at times that the difference is unexplainable, two singular representations of the same gene. Thankfully the television programmes they make are so superior to the many comedy films they send over and in that perianal maker of great comedy shows, Chuck Lorre, the first season of Mom starring Anna Faris, fits neatly into the very special bracket of American comedy greats.
Mom is unlike any other comedy that has transferred well across the Atlantic. The dynamic between the three lead women captures an area of life which never really seems to be discussed in society except for showing how a life can be destroyed completely, such as in the film When A Man Loves A Woman, that of female alcoholism and the nature and support in Alcoholics Anonymous.
It is a daring premise, to turn something quite dreadful into a very good, often poignant piece of comedy whilst also giving the screen time to one of the rare examples of good female comedy actors who is so inexcusably underused, Anna Faris.
Created by Chuck Lorre, Eddie Gorodetsky, and Gemma Baker, Mom sees Christy Plunkett, (Faris) a reformed alcoholic and more than a good time girl come to terms with the past, the loving but abusive relationship between her and her mother (the superb Allison Janney, and deal with being clean, holding down a job as a waitress, protecting customers from the scorn of the genius but volatile chef Rudy (French Stewart in perhaps his best role since Third Rock From The Sun) and that of a mother and future grandmother.
For some reason it has also been shown on I.T.V. 2, rather than the natural home of American comedy in Britain, that of Channel 4, but it doesn’t suffer for this oversight and is a huge bonus compared to its stable show placed on the channel, the dreadful and overbearing Dads.
The trials and tribulations of a thirty plus woman whose whole life has spent around drink and her drug user mum might not be the easiest of programmes for people to get into or understand but the scenario is well-observed, it doesn’t descend into glorification of the situation and make pretence that being an alcoholic is anything but a stone to wear around your neck, it nevertheless captures the very real humour involved in exposing yourself to the life you have created.
Mom joins the greats of post 1980s American comedy, the silver age of cross-Atlantic humour and a huge relief when compared to the films that warps itself in the comedy clothing and yet hasn’t truly been truly funny since the days of Airplane, Caddyshack to Ghostbusters era.
Ian D. Hall