Series Premiere Review: Til’ Death
'Til Death refers to the wedding vows, "Til Death do us part..."
SABC 3 premiered new comedy,
'Til Death alongside it’s new Monday Night Comedy line up that includes the third season of
8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter and the first season of
Joey.
Sandwiched between these two shows,
'Til Death replaces former comedy
Two and a Half Men - but is it as funny?
In this new comedy of the season, a pair of newlyweds, who've been married for 12 days, move in next-door to a long married couple.
The newlyweds are Jeff Woodcock (Eddie Kaye Thomas whose best known for his role as Finch in
American Pie) and Steph Woodcock (recently seen as Kat Foster in Law & Order).
The older, more boring couple, Eddie Stark (Brad Garrett best known for his role in
Everybody Loves Raymond) and Joy Stark (Joely Fisher who played Lynette’s boss in the second season of
Desperate Housewives), have been married for over 8,000 days and provide the younger couple with a surprising look at what their future might hold 'Til Death Does Them Part.
Yawn. I certainly will think twice and date this series for a few weeks more before committing to a season-long marriage to the show (no word yet if FOX will pick the show up for a second season).
The show is obviously focused on marriage, it’s an interesting concept and angle for a comedy series, but is marriage really a joke? From it’s premiere, which wasn’t a very strong establishing for the show, the new couple represent the beginning of married life and the older couple represent what the later road holds, if so - someone please slap me before I enter the church and say “I Do”.
Some mildly humourous, a bit scary, married life inside jokes:
Eddie: Because, in marriage, women stop fun from happening.
Jeff: I'm your new vice principal, Mr. Woodcock.
Kid: I'm sorry, Mr. Wood what?
Eddie: And so it begins.
Joy: We are going jogging.
Eddie: What!? No, you said we could be fat. That was our 40th birthday present to each other.
Joy: That was before I met our new next door neighbour and I looked like I could eat her.
Eddie: Hey, you know maybe when we get home we can at least try the make up sex. You know, see what it's all about.
Joy: Yeah, good.
(Both pause for a few seconds) Joy: We'll see.
Eddie: Yeah.
Joy: I knew it. I knew something was up.
Eddie: What?! Nothing is up, I said I was sorry. Now it's time for make up sex.
Joy: What are you doing?
Eddie: No, it's make up sex - that's what people do.
Joy: You cannot have make up sex until you have made up, idiot.
Joy: Name one time in our marriage when I stopped you from having fun.
Eddie: Oh, alright I'm gonna go with the, uh, redwood hot tub.
Joy: I thought that I did our neighbours a service by sparing them the sight of you lowering your freakishly long body into a big pot of back hair soup.
Eddie: Oh that's nice! That's constructive.
Eddie: You realize, Woodcock, that you're never getting that pool table.
Jeff: What? Yeah we are.
Eddie: No, your wife said that's an interesting idea. That's women talk for maybe when the sun burns out.
Guess it would be a great wedding present for TVSA member Prawn whose honeymooning to give this series a viewing so that she doesn't allow her marriage to escalate to this. Is marriage really this bad (concerning the older couple)? If so, the future might see a divorce, however I’ll wait for the Honeymoon period to be over before I decide whether divorce or a solid marriage is on the cards for this series.
Ironically the show is written by real-life husband & wife Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa - and they still are together - so there may be hope the show will go on.
“Marriage is just created for someone to drive you to the hospital” - Til' Death
True or False?