Mom: Season 1 (2013)
Average Rating: 5.8/10
Reviews Counted: 33
Fresh: 22 | Rotten: 11
Anna Faris and Allison Janney share an undeniable comedic chemistry, and if the jokes are sometimes too crass, Mom represents a sincere (and often witty) attempt to address addiction issues.
Average Rating: 5.6/10
Critic Reviews: 16
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 5
Anna Faris and Allison Janney share an undeniable comedic chemistry, and if the jokes are sometimes too crass, Mom represents a sincere (and often witty) attempt to address addiction issues.
Season Info
Anna Faris and Emmy® winner Allison Janney star in a new comedy from Chuck Lorre. Faris plays Christy, a single mom whose newly found sobriety has given her the ability to see her life clearly... and she does not like the view.
Network: CBS
Premiere Date: Sep 23, 2013
Cast
-
Anna Faris
Christy -
Allison Janney
Bonnie -
-
-
French Stewart
Rudy -
Matt Jones
Baxter -
Nathan Corddry
Gabriel -
Sadie Calvano
Violet -
Spencer Daniels
Luke -
-
Shane Blades
William -
Justin Long
Adam -
Mimi Kennedy
Marjorie -
Octavia Spencer
Regina -
George Paez
Ramone -
-
Dorian Brown
Betsy -
Kristen O'Meara
Dolores -
-
Jill Lover
Carla -
-
Kotaro Watanabe
Dr. Nakamura -
Mark Berry
Douglas -
Lyn Alicia Henderson
Susan -
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Episodes
Pilot
Newly sober single mom Christy is challenged when her estranged, overly critical mother returns to her life in the series premiere of this comedy from executive producer Chuck Lorre ("Two and a Half Men" and "The Big Bang Theory").
A Pee Stick and an Asian Raccoon
A family crisis leads Christy and Bonnie to set aside their differences.
A Small Nervous Meltdown and a Misplaced Fork
Christy goes on her first date since she stopped drinking. Meanwhile, young Roscoe learns how to gamble, courtesy of Bonnie. Justin Long guest stars.
Loathing and Tube Socks
Christy's patience is tested by everyone around her. Elsewhere, Bonnie happens upon an old rival.
Six Thousand Bootleg T-Shirts and a Prada Handbag
Christy makes a new friend who proves to be quite troubled. Elsewhere, Bonnie focuses on meeting someone else's needs. Octavia Spencer guest stars.
Abstinence and Pudding
Critic Reviews for Mom: Season 1
Lorre knows what he's doing with modern families -- he wrote some of Roseanne's best lines -- and he's got a better actress playing his new mom under fire.
This is dark material, yet Faris balances it with a genuine winsomeness, able to wring laughs out of the most innocuous lines.
I saw good actors mouthing what I'm just going to boldly say were terrible lines based on what I had written down. And then I woke up, many hours later, drained of the will to watch television.
Janney and Faris seem to have fun, even when the material in the pilot episode is a tad too seedy and even off-puttingly icy. If Mom could dial it down a notch, it would find a better balance between bawdy and snide.
The one real failing of this show is French Stewart.
The writing rings true as often as not, and the actors do not wave their arms or raise their voices unduly; they play to the human moments between the rim shots.
Faris is terrific, and so is Janney.
It's a punch-line shooting gallery, setting 'em up and knocking 'em down, with a rhythm reminiscent of the classic Bob Newhart sitcoms.
at its core, Mom has a solid group of characters and a very strong cast (including French Stewart as the restaurant's dictatorial chef) who, by the end of the episode, display the kind of chemistry sitcoms need.
It gets this particular job done with flair, vigor, a punchy script and two leads who make it all fairly addictive.
The supporting cast is uninteresting and cliched but when Janney & Faris get going? It reminds one of how good they can be with the right material.
Mom is about shtick, and it has hired a core group of actors who know how to do it.
Janney seems like a natural for this sort of comedic turn, and her character's zen-like attitude, not over-thinking things and living in the moment, hits home.
Beneath the armor plating of punch lines beats a wounded and affecting heart.
Mom is one of the very few sitcoms on television... to feature characters who are not thoughtlessly affluent.
Mom deals lightly with the serious problem of addiction and manages to be clever, not sanctimonious.
The hit to miss ratio on the jokes however is pretty low, with only an occasional truly funny moment among a lot of cracks about sex and drugs in this family's history (and present).
Given the number of self-absorbed and annoying fathers on sitcoms, another self-absorbed and annoying mother is fine. She helps keep the party balanced. But she also needs to make the party funnier, and CBS' new Mom does not.
The jokes are so broad and the laughter so loud, fake and laugh-track-y that it's a turnoff to the kind of viewer who prefers a subtler guffaw.
What Mom lacks in bite, it makes up for in balance, with a dependable number of laughs and a strong ensemble.
Mom's set-up is the stuff of maudlin Lifetime movies, but believe it or not, everything here is played for laughs, generally to great effect.
While the jokes in Mom are often stingingly crass, Faris and Janney score more often than not.
Heavy dysfunction gets a backup laugh track, and it can turn mean. But Lorre knows how to wring dark humor from tragic circumstances.
Mom needs some work to develop its overlarge cast, but the core characters of Christy and Bonnie show promise.
The pilot feels like 17 shows all crammed together into one - including a lot of wacky antics...
If it goes darker, it will become depressing; if it goes lighter, it will become generic. Most likely, it will just go away.
As for yours truly, I like it. A lot. Because I laughed. A lot.
I'm genuinely optimistic for Mom.
Luckily, Faris and Janney are funnier than the material.
It's trying too hard to be a "sitcom" that looks and feels straight out of 1992. The bones are there, but the execution is lacking.
Mom flails so desperately-with no redeeming aspects-it is unlikely any kind of life preserver can save it.
Mom is the first multi-cam comedy to crack me up in a decade.
Watching Mom is like eating a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It's sweet and enjoyable, but it'll leave you craving something a little bit more exciting.
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