The cupcake business hit a serious snag when the oven broke, testing tested Caroline's resolve and commitment on '2 Broke Girls' (Mon., 8PM ET on CBS). As strong as she has proven to be, Caroline is still a woman who's given up everything she knew.

When she found herself stepping back into that world as a pauper trying to sell some rings, she panicked upon being confronted by some of her former friends, leaving Max abandoned and alone.

To make up for it, Caroline ultimately did sell all of her rings to buy Max's dream oven, which cracked that shell a little more. Max admitted to wanting to and then did hug Caroline.

'2 Broke Girls' (Mon., 8:30PM ET on CBS) dealt with reality this week by finally acknowledging that there is no way these girls can take care of Chestnut through the winter. It was a genuinely heartfelt realization for both the characters and the viewers. We've grown to love Chestnut as much as the girls, and we don't want to imagine the show without him either.

Luckily, thanks to Max's second job babysitting for that vapid rich woman, Peach Landis, an opportunity arose. Peach is trying to compete with a best friend to get cast on the latest spin-off, 'The Real Housewives of Tribeca.' Taking in disgraced multi-millionaire Caroline Channing's poor horse might be just the thing to put her over the edge.

It's always been hard to believe that Caroline could remain so relentlessly perky considering what the character's been through. This week, though, we finally got a glimpse of what losing everything and everyone she's ever known has done to her emotionally on '2 Broke Girls' (Mon., 8:30PM ET on CBS), and it was about time.

Now, I don't want Caroline moping around every week -- as that appears to be Max's job -- but she does need to work through these emotions from time to time at least during her first year as part of the working class. Kudos to her for taking a bad situation (can't afford new mixer) and turning it into a potentially winning one.

Just as life hasn't been easy for Max up until this point, neither is love going to be an easy path. And just because a guy is nice and charming and clearly into you, doesn't mean he's going to dump his girlfriend so he can be with you. Max learned that hard lesson this week on '2 Broke Girls' (Mon., 8:30PM ET on CBS).

Johnny keeps coming around, and Max is weak to his charms, but Johnny is apparently more than willing to keep Max on the side, and keep his girlfriend Cash as well. It's unclear whether Cash was aware of the situation, but she certainly dropped hints that she was.

Oddly enough inspired by a hoarded apartment, and the constant nagging of Caroline, Max finally put herself out there emotionally, admitting that she liked Johnny. She couldn't have picked a worse time to do it, though, on this week's '2 Broke Girls' (Mon., 8:30PM ET on CBS).

Granted, she did lean in for the kiss up on the billboard when watching out for him while he tagged, but he played that one off. Turns out he played it off because he has a girlfriend. A girlfriend who was standing there when Max threw caution to the wind and kissed him right there in the streets.

The biggest mystery of the fall season doesn't involve a detective or dead body; the suspects are, in this case, '2 Broke Girls.' Why doesn't the CBS sitcom do a much faster and more efficient job of fixing what's wrong with it? These problems are eminently fixable and they're getting in the way of what's working about the show.

'2 Broke Girls,' you may recall, was one of the best-reviewed pilots of the season, but since then, it's often found itself mired in a morass of cringe-inducing supporting characters, brain-numbing predictability and jokes that feel as though they were exhumed from dead sitcoms of the '80s. What gives? The show is doing well (it got a full-season order from CBS), but I can't escape the feeling that it'd be doing even better if it ditched its more groan-worthy elements.

Given the magical ability to fix '2 Broke Girls,' here's what I'd change right away:

1. Dump the racist caricature.

Caroline learned a hard truth about the working class life on '2 Broke Girls' (Mon., 8:30PM ET on CBS) when Max took her to a Goodwill. She learned that sometimes you have to fight for what you want. But even though it was Max who taught her this trick, she seemed resigned to losing.

In fact, Max's pessimism and give-up attitude is one of the things Caroline seems committed to fixing. She's also determined to see the two of them become genuine friends. And friends stick up for one another no matter the circumstances.

Now that we're past the pilot, which had plenty of good jokes in it, we're starting to see what kind of a show '2 Broke Girls' (Mon., 8:30PM ET on CBS) wants to be. It clearly wants Max to have a snarky retort for absolutely everything that's said to her, while Caroline is the surprisingly grounded one.

Only it's not really working. Or at least, Max's constant quips are starting to wear thin. It's like she's trying to be Chandler from 'Friends,' without any of the moments of sincerity or reality that grounded him from time to time.

We get that this is a tough exterior of sarcasm she's built around her, but it's being slathered on a bit too thick. On the flip side, we're completely surprised to be liking Caroline more and more.

At the heart of '2 Broke Girls' (Mon., 9:30PM ET on CBS) is this 'Odd Couple' relationship that springs up between seasoned and ultra-jaded waitress Max and Caroline, the trust fund baby who finds herself suddenly broke and out on her own.

To the writers' credit, they don't write Caroline as spoiled or self-entitled. She may be a little clueless as to how the real world worlds, but she shows drive and commitment, which is rare in the pampered rich girl persona.

The girls' first meeting tried to establish a good cadence between them, as Max discovers that Caroline's father "ripped off the entire city," and just how rich Caroline was. But the connection between the two never really comes together this episode.

A lot will be written this fall -- and a lot already has been said -- about the bumper crop of new shows that revolve around female characters. Three women-centered comedies premiere this week, and they certainly have their share of interesting gender issues.

But before getting into that topic, it might be worth saying whether these comedies are funny or not, and whether they have the potential to be consistently amusing once they shake off the flop sweat that almost all comedy pilots display.

In order of both laughs and potential, I'd list the shows in the following order: The solid '2 Broke Girls' (9:30PM ET Monday, CBS) is at the head of the class, 'New Girl' (9PM ET Tuesday, Fox) is in the middle of the pack, and 'Whitney' (9:30PM ET Thursday, NBC) is the most problematic of the three.

Could Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs of '2 Broke Girls' be the next Lucy and Ethel? 'The Early Show' (weekdays, 7AM on CBS) explored the question as Mo Rocca took a look back at female friends on television, from 'I Love Lucy' to Mary and Rhoda, and Laverne and Shirley to evaluate how the newcomers might stack up.

"With '2 Broke Girls,' one is this working class waitress and the other one is a Manhattan heiress who also had a fall from grace," said Jess Cagle, EW editor. That compares best with 'Laverne & Shirley,' he said, as the pair support each other despite their differences and bond as friends.