Perfect Couples -- TV Review

The first thing viewers will be asking themselves as it unspools: "How do you mess up such a stellar cast?" Later, they'll realize the writers also forgot to create believable,
likable characters.

The show is about three couples who are not as disparate as the writers want us to believe. There's Dave (Kyle Bornheimer) and Julia (Christine Woods), the "normal" couple. There's Vance (David Walton) and Amy (Mary Elizabeth Ellis), the supposedly wild and "passionate" couple. Then there's Rex (Hayes MacArthur) and Leigh (Olivia Munn), the "perfect" couple.

Munn, a former TV host and Internet sensation -- pretty much the epitome of hot, sarcastic and dirty to both the geek world and the college crowd -- is cast against type as an uptight, prudish do-gooder. Really? It makes no sense. Casting Ellis (the unattainable, blunt waitress in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) as slightly unstable was a good idea that gets ruined when she's also a ditsy, shallow shopaholic. People, people, people. Watch her work. Give her something of substance.

Most of the pity should be reserved for Bornheimer (Worst Week), a very funny, talented actor, and Woods (FlashForward), who displays grounded appeal and understated comic timing. Not only do they try heroically to make something out of nothing, but they also have a realness you'd actually want to watch -- something that is buried by the other two couples spouting unfunny dialogue and flailing desperately to find identity in their characters.

But that's a lost cause: These are just shtick people, leaving the show nowhere near perfect.