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'The New Adventures of Old Christine' - 'A Family Unfair' Recap
by Jason Hughes, posted Feb 11th 2010 3:15AM
(S05E14) Christine went into full crazy mode this week, after virtually the entire extended family showed up for New Christine's ultrasound. There was a lot of fun to be had with everyone trying to explain to the doctor, guest star Tim Meadows, how they were all connected to one another, and it made me realize that sitcoms -- or at least this one -- are more like soap operas than we may realize.The marriages and relationships and romantic entanglements of this particular cast go beyond the unusual and into the realm of disturbing. And yet, it all seemed to progress so naturally over the last four-and-a-half seasons. That must be why it's so easy for soap fans to accept the crazy things that happen on their shows. And their crazy characters can't be nearly as crazy as Old Christine.
While it would be potentially funny for Christine to get pregnant and go through the experiences of pregnancy and infancy with her, I think it was the right move for her and Richard to realize they're too old to be having babies at this point. As they brilliantly pointed out, they don't know where Ritchie is half the time anyway. That's something we've talked about when watching the show; wondering where Ritchie is at during many of the scenes.
Unfortunately for Richard, when realizing with Old Christine that he was more than through having babies, he seemed to forget that New Christine was currently pregnant with his child. That revelation seemed to be the single point of the whole episode, as everything else was just throwaway gags ... or throwaway flammable bassinets, as the case may be. New Christine still gets great lines to remind us of how dim-witted she is in some respects. This week it was asking if the bassinet was a doll bed.
The subsequent tug-of-war over it between the Christines was also pretty funny, with Old Christine saying she wanted to give it up, but that New Christine would have to knock her out and pry it from her cold, dead fingers to get it. It's the caliber of talent on this show that can sell even the goofiest of exchanges like this. The banter back and forth was played so perfectly, as was the end result.
It's always a comfortable place to be at in the life of a sitcom when the characters and their relationships are so well established that you can wring humor out of the smallest things. Or in this case, the biggest, when Christine pulled out a bra thinking it was one of hers from her pregnancy with Ritchie.
I'm not sure why Barb's bra would be there, but that simple statement set up a string of moments between Barb and Richard and Matthew that wouldn't have worked if we weren't already "friends" with all of these characters. It's a sign of well-developed characters and writers who aren't just phoning in generic sitcom crap week after week. For all its unspectacular ratings and total lack of buzz, 'The New Adventures of Old Christine' is a far better put together show than many other sitcoms that share its level of notoriety.
[For clips of The New Adventures of Old Christine, make a date with our friends at SlashControl.]
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