Jmunney's Blog

Season Analysis: There were several episodes of Don’t Trust the B… produced for Season 1 that did not air until Season 2.  Those were from a time when the show had not yet found its footing, but the Season 2 proper episodes were good enough to put the show in the running as one of the top 3 sitcoms on television.

“Love and Monsters…”
Nothing else besides Don’t Trust the B… in Apartment 23 could so succinctly pull off a subversion of the typical romantic comedy, and the reason why is because it just does not care.  That is to say, not that the show does not care, but that its characters, in general, care very little, about anything, especially Chloe, the titular B—-.  Chloe has an annual game/long con of picking out a loser at JVDB’s Halloween parties to ruin his life, but her current target, Benjamin, has turned the tables on her by making her life like a romantic comedy, the epitome of all that she is against.  Chloe’s lack of caring is illustrated by June telling Chloe over the phone that Benjamin has indeed pulled it off and put Chloe in a situation in which she realizes what she wants has been in front of her all along, and June is in fact able to convince Chloe of this, and then Chloe abruptly hangs up on June.  The antics of most characters on this show are enjoyable but off-putting if you take them personally.  Luckily, June – the one who most bears the brunt of these antics – has thick skin, and she continues to be willing to stick with Chloe, making their friendship one of the most unique and surprisingly successful friendships on TV.

Honorable Mention: “Dating Games…”
It is revealed to June that Mark has feelings for her, something the audience has known for a while, and it is always enjoyable when a character has a big one dropped on her like that; Don’t Trust the B—- makes it particularly so by having it happen within the context of JVDB testing out his new dating show idea on his friends.

Season Analysis: After a seven-episode first season, Apartment 23 hasn’t met its full potential yet (or at least, I hope it hasn’t met its full potential yet), but it has enough promising elements that it could very quickly become one of the best comedies on the air at some point in its second season just like another ABC sitcom that used to air Wednesdays at 9:30.

“The Wedding…”

Who ever thought that June was boring?  She is uptight, sure (though not uptight as all get out), but uptight hardly means boring.  Uptightness may make someone allergic to fun, but the uptight person could very well be fascinating as far as her uptightness is concerned.  So when June’s former fiancée called her boring, and Chloe’s response to that accusation was, “That’s, like, the worst thing you can say to anyone,” my reaction was, “Yes, it is, especially if you’re a character on a TV show.  So good thing June’s not boring.”  While June set out to show everyone at the wedding that she is an interesting person, Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 set out to show that it is a program that is putting all of its pieces in order.  Chloe has been rubbing off on June, and June has been influencing Chloe, though not necessarily definitively, but enough so that she cares enough to help June out with the whole charade to prove that she is not boring.  The fact that James van der Beek exists in these characters’ world has become something that is just accepted, which is surely necessary but sort of bittersweet (as June says wistfully, “I used to have a poster of you”).  And Eli is no longer just the creep who masturbates across the hall, with his gig in the wedding band making him more recognizable as an actual person than any other episode thus far.