Trophy Wife: Season 1 (2013)
Average Rating: 5.8/10
Reviews Counted: 37
Fresh: 27 | Rotten: 10
Charm, likeable characters, good chemistry, and an efficient pace help to make Trophy Wife a sly, insightful sitcom.
Average Rating: 6.1/10
Critic Reviews: 17
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 6
Charm, likeable characters, good chemistry, and an efficient pace help to make Trophy Wife a sly, insightful sitcom.
Season Info
A young woman marries an older man, inheriting difficult relationships with his three kids and two ex-wives.
Network: ABC
Premiere Date: Sep 24, 2013
Cast
-
Albert Tsai
Bert -
Bradley Whitford
Brad -
Gianna LePera
Hillary -
Malin Akerman
Kate -
Marcia Gay Harden
Diane -
-
Michaela Watkins
Jackie -
Natalie Morales
Meg -
-
Ryan Scott Lee
Nelson -
Paul Brittain
Tevin -
Marcus Folmar
Duane -
Phyllis Smith
Mrs. Steinberg -
David L. King
Doctor -
-
Early Whitesides
Old Man -
-
-
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Episodes
Pilot
Still feeling like she is proving herself to her three stepchildren and her husband's two ex-wives, Kate offers to handle a parent-teacher meeting; an incident with vodka puts Kate in a compromising position. -- (C) ABC
Cold File
Kate tries to take on more responsibility by helping Pete coach Bert's soccer team. Meanwhile, Warren and Hillary accidentally spill salsa on Diane's couch.
The Social Network
Diane and Pete pry into Hillary's Facebook page after she's caught lying in order to hang out with a boy.
The Breakup
Meg moves in with Kate and Pete after a breakup. Meanwhile, Warren helps Bert with a project.
The Tryst
'The Tryst',10/2/2013 Between everyone's crazy schedules and activities, Pete and Kate are having a tough time finding any alone time, so at Diane's 80s-themed school fundraiser event, they attempt a risque romantic romp inside the janitor's closet.
Halloween
Kate comes to the rescue after Jackie's homemade Halloween costume for Bert doesn't turn out right.
The Date
Kate and Pete host a party. Meanwhile, Meg posts an unflattering picture of Diane online.
Critic Reviews for Trophy Wife: Season 1
I so wanted to like this show, but Trophy is no prize.
There is some vague promise afoot in the ensemble of performers; they're all adept enough to build distinctive characters if they have the time and the backing of writers who know how to write for actors.
The sitcom chefs at ABC have fired up the Cuisinart in an effort to create another blended-family winner on a par with Modern Family, but the result, Trophy Wife, is forced-frivolity mush.
Grounded in parental reality, it's funny and promises to be funnier.
In many ways it's not fair -- a few weeks with this cast could produce some intriguing results -- but it's hard to imagine the audience waiting around to see what jells.
Trophy Wife is the only new sitcom that clears the double hurdles of cast chemistry and story pacing in the pilot episode.
These are not people you want to spend 22 minutes with every Tuesday night.
Even if you swallow all of Trophy Wife's absurd contrivances, you won't be laughing very much.
[Trophy Wife] boasts one of the new season's most charming couples in Akerman and Whitford.
Akerman is reason enough to buy in for at least a few episodes.
It's a pile of cliches on top of stereotypes on top of bad comedy.
Buried beneath the frenzied, too-eager-to-please surface is a comedy that, at its best, evokes the colorful bustle of Malcolm in the Middle and the worn-down wisdom of Men of a Certain Age. There's life in it.
The show is so intent on jumping to the "hot stepmom" gags that it doesn't give its characters much room to breathe - much less time for us to get to know them, or each other.
Akerman has wit and style, and so does the show, which is not the swirling bimbomania you might expect from the title.
Akerman bumps into things with abandon and just the right glimmer of grace. Her knees knock and her limbs fold up like a newborn colt, learning to walk. But her show, anyway, already has legs.
We believe they were brought together because someone thought it would add up to a good sitcom. Sadly, not quite.
Blended family strains for laughs with wacky sitcom hijinks.
I named Trophy Wife one of the fall's 10 best based on a pilot that was better than it sounded on paper.
There's a tremendous energy to Trophy Wife, making it a delightful comedy that's far more wholesome than its title implies.
Akerman's effortlessly sexy wackiness is a delightful counterpoint to the dour authority of Marcia Gay Harden as first wife Dr. Diane and the daffy neuroses of Michaela Watkins as flighty Wife No. 2 Jackie.
What won me over to Trophy Wife was the sense that the writers not only have specific ideas about who the characters are, but they also have a great deal of affection for every member of this ad hoc family.
The half-hour is loaded with issues and it's all too sudden and sitcom-random...but these things happen.
Although not as funny (or loud) as The Goldbergs, Trophy Wife offers some promise if viewers can get beyond its Cougar Town-like title, which may be a high bar to clear.
The only character who really lands is Akerman's - she's charming and plays drunk amusingly - but that's the one who needs to if the show is going to work.
The charming pilot swerves quickly from the expected Bravo-reality-show-catfight scenario and becomes something more complicated and rewarding.
Whitford is always winning, and even the poor exes find wiggle room inside their cliches.
It's the optics of the title that will prevent perfectly reasonable people from not tuning in. Keeping people once they arrive will be easy.
Thanks to appealing female leads and a clever script, Trophy Wife transcends its simplistic title.
There's something oddly comforting in the harmless, fluffy nature of the show.
Much to my surprise, Trophy Wife turned out to be one of my favorite pilots of the fall season. And pretty much completely not the show I thought it would be.
There aren't a ton of laugh-out-loud moments. In fact, the pilot inspires more smiles than guffaws. However, as sitcoms go, this one isn't bad.
In its pilot form, at least, Trophy Wife is surprisingly self-assured and confident, the sort of show that seems ready to hit its stride in just a week or two.
As extreme as the three-wife concept might be, the execution is believable and the scenarios genuinely funny.
You know exactly where this one is going and yet it works for the most part.
Trophy Wife could prove to be one of the more charming comedies on television.
Warm, sly, and very, very funny.
It has a few laughs but doesn't deserve any trophies.
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