Two half seasons, amounting to just over one whole season(if going by the 22-24 amount that seems to be the usual for American television series). That's what this show got. I wish I could claim that it's that tough to determine why. The problem is that this just really doesn't have that much to offer. Originality is low to where it's impossible to ignore... I'm not sure I've ever seen so many episodes about the same thing(s?). Jokes and gags are repeated ad nauseum, with a handful of basic material(which is not to say that it isn't sometimes good, or that none of it is new) about the various certain situations and characters being reused, merely minorly rewritten, as the most common method of attempting to garner laughs from the audience(when the canned track more often than not can be taken as an instructor in when you're supposed to find something funny, you know something's wrong). One episode has an absolutely meaningless scenery-change there for no other purpose than to stage a line of puns, the idea behind which was done considerably better on Married... With Children, you know, oh, about a decade back, if not more. One thing that is just too "loud" on this is how Fran(who, it already has been pointed out by others, is basically playing the same character as usual) seems to constantly be parading around her improved life and new-found happiness(so much so that one would think that it isn't just in the fiction, honestly, at times this whole thing seems mostly put together as a vendetta... and I'm not unsympathetic to the pain of heart-ache, nor against art born from strong, even vindictive, emotions - The Crow is a splendid example that such motivation can be excellent - but when this is the result... I mean, if there is this little creative force behind it, then please at least get assistance by someone who could raise it to a higher level). Why so much sex? It's in every other punchline at times. The Halloween episode has nothing interesting to offer(granted, not every other does, but with how many, including unlikely ones, have, it's a legitimate expectation). The production as such is fine, nothing special. The supporting players aren't bad, they just aren't that memorable, nor their performances *that* strong(worst of which by far McPartlin, who was clearly cast entirely based on his appearance). It has already been said that Drescher is lacking a solid grown-up character to play off of(like Niles on The Nanny). The references to aforementioned title in which the lead also kept her first name were cute at first, but got old long before they ceased. Writing could be more consistent. In the end, this just never really succeeds to put anything on the screen that is all that memorable or fresh, in spite of what humor it does contain(which is hardly the least I've seen on a sit-com). Unfortunate. I recommend this only to the biggest fans of Fran Drescher. I at best like her, at worst don't usually mind her mainly Jew-centric(not a criticism, just an observation) comedic work. 5/10
Review of Living with Fran
