I was planning on hating this show.  I thought this would be yet another show about a pair of stupid girls living their spoiled lives and then being thrust out of it.  I was expecting another Kath and Kim but instead I was pleasantly surprised.

So the show focuses around two girls.  Max Black played by Kat Dennings (Thor) and Carol Channing played by Beth behrs (American Pie: The Book of Love).  Both are broke and both are working in a diner.

So we split this review up by girl.

Max Black

The prologue to the credits follows Max while working and it tells us everything we need to know about her.  She is smart, quick wit, working two jobs and barely scraping by.  She doesn’t really like most people but she gives them all the basic respect they deserve.  She also demands the same for herself.  God help you if you don’t give her the most basic respect.

Kat Dennings is amazing.  She is a fast actress who pulls off that ever so difficult job of riding the line of ‘cold-hearted bitch’ and ‘I actually care about people’ without it becoming cliché or over done.

Carol Channings

She is a rich heiress child who has suddenly lost all her money when her father is arrested and their assists seized.  She stumbles into the dinner and gets a new job even though she has no clue what’s she doing.

She sounds pretty standard for a fish out of water character but truth be told there is much more to her.  We learn very quickly she had a mind for business.  She isn’t a dumb blond, she has a degree in business and knows how to make money – the only problem being you have to have money to make money.

You question whether you should feel sorry for her, being cast out and having lost everything, but after what seems like a forced attempt, but came off smoother than expected, Carol is hit on by Max’s boyfriend and she rejects him despite his good looks.  So we feel we have to like her.

I expected her to follow the Odd Couple formula.  Max is self reliant and can do everything, therefore by the laws of TV Carol should be helpless.  While it seems that way at the beginning it’s not true.  Carol is having some bad luck.  She has nothing but she isn’t afraid to work.  We see her hand washing clothes, jumping head first into her new job at the diner, and even after the obvious conflict of the episode, the result of which is Max bailing on work, Carol tries to keep the dinner running on her own, although with great difficulty.

So after the help of both girls, and a new goal from Carol, we have the show’s gimmick.  At the end of each episode we will get a total representing how close they are to their $250 000 goal.

The trailers did the show no justice.  They made both girls look like Valley Girls or dumb heiress.  I was expected a female dumb and dumber or a new clueless.   I was pleasantly surprised.  This is a smart show that I expect will go far.  This might quickly become a new favourite of mine.