"New Girl."
"2 Broke Girls."
"Whitney."
We get it, new TV shows. You're capitalizing on the very cool female talent that's in comedy these days.
You do not, however, have to hit us over the head with it or convince us to love them all right away. Shows like "30 Rock" or "Parks and Recreation" have female leads, but they don't flaunt it.
Do you know how many times Amy Poehler has been asked about breaking ground as a female comedian?
Too many.
She now calls that question "boring."
It's sad that being a woman in comedy is still considered news. Let's try evaluating a television series based on talent, regardless of who's in charge.
That's where I'm coming from this week.
I was excited for two of those new shows because of the concepts and the creative power of the ensembles behind them.
Here's what I thought:
"New Girl"
In a really cool marketing move, the show was released for Internet-viewership about a week before the television premiere. It was available to download for free on iTunes, so I was able to get a head start on loving this show.
I get that a lot of people complain about Zooey Deschanel's "manic, pixie dream girl" typecasting, but I think this show is honestly trying to get away from that.
The premise of the show is original enough: boy cheats on girl, girl moves into an apartment with three dudes whom she found on Craigslist and hilarity ensues.
Sure, they try to push the nerd jokes a little too hard; they might even exaggerate the difference between ladies and men a tad too much. But as far as first episodes go, the characters were firmly established in an entertaining way. This show definitely has a balance of obvious quirkiness and real heart.
"2 Broke Girls"
I figured this show might be a little tricky; I'm usually not a fan of sitcoms on CBS - just as a general rule. But, I had faith for two reasons: Kat Dennings, making the move from the big screen just like our pal Zooey, is one of my favorite people of all time; and Molly McAleer, one of the writers for the show and co-creators of hellogiggles.com is the perfect storm of edgy and girly. The show works from a basis of stereotypes but with a smile. People watch TV to escape, so this show is set in as real of a world as possible.
I'm totally interested in what will happen next week, mainly so I can figure out if I really like it, or if I've been blinded by my lady-loves. Either way, I'm proud of CBS for not relying mostly on genitalia jokes for their laugh mileage.
And for using a Peter, Bjorn and John tune as the theme song.
"Whitney"
Starring Whitney Cummings (co-creator/co-producer for "2 Broke Girls"), the show follows Whitney and her crazy, whack-a-doodle life. It claims, at the very beginning of the episode, that it's taped in front of a live studio audience; the jarring laugh track begs to differ, though.
I don't think I laughed out loud once during the entire episode; just a few chuckles to myself. The situations and characters felt a bit forced and uncomfortable at times.
I'm definitely not judging the entire series based on the pilot. If everyone did that, hardly any shows would be renewed for multiple seasons. I'm excited to see where the show ends up going.
Pretty soon, there will only be TV shows called "Girls" or "Funny Ladies Make You Laugh."
Or "Gilmore Girls."
I just really miss "Gilmore Girls," OK?
Sami Main is a journalism junior at UF. Her column appears on Tuesdays.
