Happily Divorced

I watched Fran Drescher’s new sitcom, Happily Divorced, right now. It’s alright. It’s based off of Fran’s real life. Fran’s husband of 18 years came out to her, but they can’t afford to move out so they still live together. Now we have to watch all of their wacky hijinks and shenanigans as Fran is now back into the dating pool and Peter is gay.

I think that based off of the pilot so far, the show feels like one big gay joke. Peter, the ex husband, goes to sing along nights for Sound of Music at bars, grooms himself (Okay, so this isn’t exactly a gay stereotype because I tweeze my eyebrows but I’m straight; but Peter obsesses over his appearance, waxes his chest, has blue contacts [just for his appearance], and dyed his hair blond apparently, so I guess this falls under the feminine stereotype), and he’s into ‘feminine’ things like landscaping the house, watching Glee or Gray’s Anatomy, and so on.

This really surprised me because Fran Drescher seems like a nice, non-homophobic person. She even posed for the N0h8 campaign. And she didn’t make gay jokes on The Nanny, which featured 2 episodes with gay people and a reoccurring joke that Max was gay because he works in Broadway. Then again, I don’t think she’s the writer, so I don’t completely hate her for it, and I guess anybody would be surprised/bitter if their spouse came out after 18 years of marriage. Peter, Fran’s husband in real life, also is working on this show, so as long as he’s okay with it, I guess it’s fine.

It has a good supporting cast. Rita Moreno is playing Fran’s Mom, and the Mom from Everybody Hates Chris is Fran’s best friend. There’s also Ernie from George Lopez who I’m meh about. I didn’t recognize anyone else, though.

I think the show would’ve been better if it was slowed down. Peter comes out to Fran and then there’s a time lapse thing where the show goes 6 months into the future. I thought it was weird. They could’ve have the first episode with Peter coming out or Fran dealing with Peter coming out. Also, when Peter came out, Fran looked completely bored. Her face was literally a type of face. I know she couldn’t be surprised because it’s based off of her real life, she has control over it, and they probably rehearsed it several times, so she had no reaction to it, but still. She’s on a show and she’s expected to act. Then the episode continued with Fran meeting a new guy (Asking if he’s gay, first), then their first date, the morning after, Fran’s parents coming again, and Fran’s second date. I don’t know how to describe it. It just felt really rushed. I really really hope that this was supposed to be a made for TV movie first and it was 90 minutes but they had to chop it down because TV Land liked it so much that they wanted to turn it into a show.

I’d give the show a 76 out of 100, which is surprising because I really love Fran Drescher. I hope the show gets better as it moves along. I remember Melissa and Joey had a bad first episode, but they’re coming back tonight and I’m actually looking forward to it. And Raven’s new show is on tonight as well. And there’s a third episode of Happily Divorced airing tonight, so that’s 3 shows in one night. Then once Degrassi comes back, that’s four shows in one night. Is it sad that my definition of making plans is watching TV? Yes? I thought so.