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TV Show Reviews
"Malibu Country" review by
Danielle
Friday 8:30/7:30c on ABC
Malibu Country is a new sitcom on ABC and the second attempt at headlining
a TV sitcom by country music legend Reba McEntire. The first, “Reba”
(title changed after Reba was cast), lasted six seasons between the WB and
the CW networks. That show has been greatly compared to this new show
as the premise of a wife and mother finding out that her husband has been
cheating and thus choosing to leave him is the same. The main difference in
Malibu Country is that instead of Reba being a housewife forced to go back
to work while living down the street from her ex-husband, she uproots her
two teenage children from Nashville and moves them and her mother to the
Malibu beach house the husband had secretly kept for his affairs.
The back story is that Reba and her ex-husband (played by Jeffrey Nordling)
were both country music artists but Reba chose to put her career on hold to
stay home with their children. The divorce and the move to Malibu are Reba
Gallagher’s first steps to restarting her own music career.
The teens, Cash (Justin Prentice) and June (Juliette Angelo), face
predictable teen humor scenarios. Cash is very vain and wants to move back
to Nashville because he’s no longer the best looking guy at school. June
develops a relationship with the neighbor’s son but they try to get
away with it by claiming the boy is gay. While the “Reba” show had
Barbara Jean to serve as the quirky neighbor who wants to befriend Reba,
Malibu Country has Kim (played by Sara Rue). The only difference there is
that Kim wasn’t the woman Reba’s ex-husband cheated with so there’s
no added friction and exchange of biting one liner insults. With the
attempt to restart her music career, Reba meets a record label head’s
overly flamboyant assistant Geoffrey played by Queer Eye for the Straight
Guy’s Jai Rodriquez. When he cautions Reba that without being young and
sexy, she lacks the hook an artist needs in today's music business, it
inspires Reba to write and record a song about becoming “TheNew Me”
now that she’s no longer the unsuspecting wife of a cheating
spouse. Since the plot line features music, Reba McEntire and the show plan
to release via iTunes the original songs used on the show.
While Reba has the chops for sitcom acting, the writingfailed to utilize
her talents. The addition of comedy legend Lily Tomlin asReba’s mom
Lillie Mae proves that the show crew struck gold in the castingdepartment.
Lillie Mae had the bulk of the witty comebacks and was hilarious in her
scenes portraying the effects of a California doctor’s ready willingness
to prescribe marijuana lollipops, or as Lillie Mae calls them, “happy
lollys.”
Here’s hoping that as the characters move on from such a sad change in
their lives and new relationships are developed, this sitcom's situations
become more comical.
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