“Samantha Who?” — The Job
Maybe it’s my recent decision to start tucking in my shirt and to stop dressing like a slob, or maybe it’s the fact that I recently applied something called “Face Polish” to my forehead, but I’m really enjoying Christina Applegate’s new series Samantha Who? I suppose the only thing left is for me to take a spinning class and watch Oprah. More after the jump…
There were several great things in this episode though the greatest continues to be Christina Applegate who is completely throwing herself into this role. It isn’t a particularly physical part but she’s certainly amping up the reactions though not in a way that smacks of comedic mugging. She has serious chops and the role is perfect for her. My favorite scene was when a broken down Samantha sat on her bed across from her ex-boyfriend and cried about how she didn’t want to have to work to pay her bills. It was beautifully acted as the character realizes what she’s saying out loud isn’t exactly the same as she heard it in her head.
It’s nice to see Joy Osmanski from The Loop in another series, even if she went from playing one secretary to another — though I love the idea that she was asked to “start” apples for Samantha. The supporting cast isn’t fantastic, but it is adequate enough providing a decent clip of laughs to duds with Samantha’s one-time best friend (from twenty-years ago) Dena getting the most mileage out of her part. Take for example her suggestions for Sam after hearing that she wants to quit her job, “You could do whatever you could dream of in the whole wide world! You could rescue Newfies! You could — oh! Oh! Ah… ah… um… Newfies, that’s all I got.” Funny.
Like the theme for most new series this fall, I don’t know how long they’ll be able to keep up with the premise, but for the time being I’m liking it. (Unfortunately, the other theme this fall is that shows I liked for two weeks quickly decide to be awful and cause me great levels of television-based distress… but that’s a problem for another day.)
