7/15/15

TV Land Tonight: Impastor & Gaffigan

Two new shows premiered tonight on TV Land, one about a fake minister and the second about an overstretched dad.  Both have promise.

Impastor is about a good-for-nothing gambler who takes a chance on a new life after the death of a good Samaritan who happens to be a gay minister.  Much like the earlier show Banshee, where the main character assumes the identity of a law man, the main character in Impastor gets a chance to start anew.  Starring Michael Rosenbaum, who reminds me of Christian Slater's younger brother, the series has the standard stock characters, but you can see how the tension of being a "gay" celibate minister in the small town will have its temptations.  

The second show, The Jim Gaffigan Show, has a pale, chubby, red-headed, bearded, man-child comedian as its main character?  Sound familiar?  Well, this Louis CK look-alike is happily married, has five kids in a two-bedroom NY apartment, and does clean comedy.  It's just as well Louis is off the air so that we can turn to Jim for a few more laughs, and the show delivers by poking fun at the weirdness of "normal" New Yorker behavior. 

I enjoyed the pilots of both shows, but like the other new TV Land show Younger, I am not sure I have time for all these new series.  They are fun, but not must-see TV.  Even so, I am glad they are there to watch at my leisure in the future.  

Update: TV Land has approved both shows for a second season, so if you like either of the two new series you are lucky given the number of comedies that fail each year. 

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