The New Normal - Sofa’s Choice

Pic By Nick Step (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickstep/5923245617/) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The pilot won us over, but can the second episode keep us? It’s not like this TV show is breaking ground with its nontraditional family. Modern Family has already done it. The shows are different in that Cam and Mitchell are a gay couple that are difficult not to love, and the show treats them as if they are normal. You can ignore the show or not. It is doing its own thing whether you approve of a “lifestyle” or not. It doesn’t care what you think.

On this show, characters are constantly pointing out that the gay couple is abnormal and the show goes out of the way to send the message that if you don’t like them, you’re a bigot. We like the way Modern Family does it better, but you have to admit that The New Normal mines the situation’s humor more by having Bigot Grandma deliver Sue Sylvester-style insults. We need this show to get less preachy and just do its thing though, or it’s going to date itself. The show should be less self-righteous for something that revels in stereotypes about gay men.

No one had to explain the Grey Gardens reference to us. That girl had it DOWN. We wish the writers had given Goldie a different dream. Hers depresses us. Goldie has four years of college and three years of law school. What is she going to do to feed her kid in the meantime? If she takes a job on top of that, it will be tough to spend time with her kid, let alone maintain a social life as well. Shania will be in her teens by the time Goldie can provide for her. Favorite line: “Those fruits are like cannibals. All they eat is fruit.”

Episode grade: B