UPDATE The initial reviews are in on the first episode of “American Housewife,” the ABC TV sitcom set in Westport which debuts on Tuesday, and they are generally favorable. Later reviews were not so positive, however.
“American Housewife,” set in Westport, was formerly titled “The Second Fattest Housewife in Westport.” Courtesy ABC Television
Initially titled “The Second Fattest Housewife in Westport,” the comedy series stars Katy Mixon as Katie Otto, described as “a confident, unapologetic housewife and mother of three,” who raises her flawed family in Westport full of “perfect mommies” and their “perfect offspring.”
The Boston Globe’s Matthew Gilbert said: “Mixon is great, and she’ll keep me interested. But her voice-over is excessive and her weight obsession is overcooked.”
The Washington Post’s Hank Stuever said: “’American Housewife’ is at its best during scenes of Katie’s daily life with her nerdy husband, Greg (Diedrich Bader), who happens to adore her plus-size figure, and her three children, who prove once more that ABC (with its Disneyfied intuition about such things) has a remarkable knack for casting snarky sitcom kids.”
Sonia Saraiya of Variety said: “The inner snark is much of the appeal of the show – the ongoing soliloquy where Katie tells the truth, punctuated by Mixon’s skillfull balance of eye-rolling cynicism, cheerful enthusiasm, and deep-seated worry.”
Variety adds, “The essential core of the sitcom is Mixon’s delightful, sarcastic turn as Katie, whose life seems more filled with messy indignities than the lives of her neatly put together neighbors…
“Katie’s at times reductive and impulsive, but she’s offering up a cranky, unfiltered voice that’s honest about unrealistic expectations, feminine competitiveness, and the annoyances of being a mom.
“’Who came up with the idea that a mother of three should have an ass like a 19-year-old?’ she rants. ‘It’s a complete waste of feminine energy!’”
Collider’s Allison Keene was one of the lukewarm reviews. She wrote: “The pilot has some decent zingers embedded in its moral premise, and its best moments involve Bader’s staid delivery juxtaposed with Mixon’s snark. … The pilot veers towards breaking the fourth wall and being far too preachy towards the end, though, which doesn’t serve it well.”
Scott D. Pierce of The Salt Lake Tribune left no doubt about his opinion up front: “I’m in love. In love with a sitcom, of all things. In love with ‘American Housewife.’”
The New York Times reviewer, Neil Genzlinger, had the opposite reaction: “‘American Housewife,’ an awful attempt to transplant ‘Roseanne’ into the age of economic inequality, mistakes sophomoric for subversive.”
The Hollywood Reporter was particularly harsh. “ABC’s new comedy about being overweight in the skinny suburbs is awfully thin on good jokes,” it said.
“Of the two episodes ABC made available, neither was remotely watchable and both felt like works in progress. But, honestly, progress toward what? More fat jokes?”
“…American Housewife is a paint-by-numbers sitcom that’s relentlessly stupid around the edges and deeply misguided at its center.”
It said the bottom line was: “One of the fall’s worst new comedies.”
