Has somebody finally made a decent improvisational comedy that has a shot at survival?
It helps that “Lovespring International” is on cable. It also helps that Eric McCormack of “Will & Grace” is an executive producer–far less than you’d think, but any nudge helps.
“Lovespring,” premiering at 10 p.m. Monday, is in the right place, at any rate. A sitcom about a dysfunctional dating agency seems just right for Lifetime, which is edgier these days.
Trust us–“Lovespring,” though not perfect, is far better than that. It’s also the jolt Lifetime desperately needs, an unsentimental, slightly rude thrill. Thank god, a comedy for hard, loud broads.
Appropriately enough, it stars Jane Lynch from “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Best in Show” as Victoria Ratchford, founder of Lovespring International, an upscale dating service that sells the idea of finding the perfect connection for clients.
However, as one would expect of an “elite Beverly Hills” company located in a non-descript building in Tarzana, Calif., its employees aren’t particularly adept at their jobs.
Ratchford spends most of her time taking “detox” trips, returning with cheap trinkets and tales involving colonics. One relationship consultant, Lydia Mayhew (“Reno 911!’s” Wendi McLendon-Covey) is clinging to a fruitless 20-year-old relationship with a married man.
The other consultant, Burke Kristopher (Sam Pancake) may be married, but he is unusually obsessed with painting miniatures and addressing the needs of male clients. Staff psychologist Steve Morris (Jack Plotnick) dresses, and thinks, a little too much like a cut-rate version of porn star John Holmes, which is fine by the Hello Kitty-obsessed receptionist, Tiffany (Jennifer Elise Cox), who moves and talks like a defective femme-bot.
Staff videographer Alex Odom (Mystro Clark) simply wants all of them to keep their distance.
With this terrific cast, “Lovespring” is all about fearless comedy. Contempt lurks behind every sugary exchange, like poison gas disguised in heavy perfume, and the first two episodes end with slightly crude glee.
More Top Picks Gaming Headset
On the other hand, while the series has top-notch ingredients, you can tell it isn’t soup yet. That’s the nature of unscripted comedy; sometimes what passes for raw is really too much rambling. A few bits are simply dull.
But when the show works, it’s hilarious.
– – –
The improv graveyard
Broadcast networks cannot figure out what to do with the inspired, mordant, controlled chaos of improvisational humor. Neither can audiences, for that matter. Critics adored ABC’s “Sons & Daughters,” but even acclaims of brilliance couldn’t avert its doom. Fox couldn’t wrap its head around the best way to market “Arrested Development’s” clever, subtle, scripted humor, nor the inferior, partially improvised “Free Ride.”
[ seattle post-intelligencer ]