The new series Raising Hope from Greg Garcia (creator of My Name Is Earl and Yes Dear) premiered tonight. The show which follows Jimmy Chance (Lucas Neff) a 23 year old who is suddenly thrust into fatherhood when he has a fling with a girl who actually turned out to be a serial killer, becomes pregnant and gives birth but is then sent to the electric chair, thus leaving Jimmy to raise his new daughter Hope with his extremely dysfunction family. The half hour sitcom revisits similar themes of Garcia's previous show My Name is Earl in that it follows a poor and slightly uneducated family though their misadventure, but it differs in that even though it has crass humor (a diaper changing scene ends with multiple cast members vomiting on the baby) it still manages to have heart and has you rooting for the main character even though its clear he is really not ready to be a parent. The main character Jimmy played by Neff , however young and totally unprepared to be a parent is determined to take on the challenge and comes off as very likable. The supporting cast features Martha Plimpton (The Goonies) as Virginia Chance (Jimmys mom) who is extremely enjoyable and the always hysterical Cloris Leechman as the extremely delusional Grandmother of the family (a part she plays extremely well). I have already given the series a season pass on my DVR and i suggest you do as well. The show airs on FOX Tuesday nights at 9:00 PM.
Sounds like an interesting show! Not the most original concept (single parent raising child alone, totally unprepared) but it seems like they've gone about it in an interesting way. And you can't NOT enjoy Cloris Leechman :)
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Can't wait to read more from you!
- Val