Accidentally on Purpose still bugs, but was actually pretty watchable

Accidentally on Purpose was one of those shows that I knew was premiering, but just tried to ignore. I kept my distance for two reasons: 1) Jenna Elfman has kind of freaked me out ever since she screamed at some dude on the street about baby rape because he was wearing an anti-Scientology t-shirt, and 2) the title and the premise of the show make me grind my teeth.

I hate the fact that single women, especially single women “Of A Certain Age,” are portrayed in film and television as little more than carriers of cold, empty wombs just begging for a baby. Never mind the fact that Elfman’s character, Billie, is a successful film critic, which in this age of dying media is no small feat. We are told right away that her life is worthless unless she has a baby.

A half-hour sitcom is only 22 minutes long, so I understand that there’s a lot of information and character introduction that needs to be squeezed into that time period. However, the speed with which Billie realizes she is pregnant, admits that she may have gotten pregnant “accidentally on purpose,” and decides to keep the baby without even exploring her options, struck me as glib.

Yes, it’s a sitcom, but sitcoms can deal with serious issues in a less-dismissive way than AOP did. Even Mary Pois, the person on whom the Billie character is loosely based, was dismayed by this seemingly rash decision making. Plus, there’s the premise behind the show’s title, the whole “accidentally on purpose” idea, which again paints women as desperate people who will perhaps ruin — and definitely seriously affect — a man’s life in order to have a child.

It’s one thing to accidentally get pregnant — that is a risk any two consenting adults take when having sex. But for either of the parties to try to have a baby “accidentally on purpose,” is a different matter. Zach is faced with two decisions, which he enumerates in the episode: either become a father at 22, or know that he has a child out there in the world wondering why daddy doesn’t love him. Ooh, sitcom-y!

I guess my problem is having such a serious issue portrayed as goofy. So when I finally watched the pilot this morning, I expected to hate it. While these issues continue to bother me, I will say that Accidentally on Purpose was a surprisingly decent show.

I suspect that the fact that Claudia Lonow, the woman who created and is the executive producer of Accidentally on Purpose, is a single mother helped the episode be a lot less ham-fisted than it could have been. I’m still unsure about Jenna Elfman, and her sister, Abby (Lennon Parham), is more of a caricature than a character so far, but the rest of the characters more than make up for that. Ashley Jensen is hilarious as Olivia, Billie’s best friend, and Grant Show, as always, does the whole smarmy/charming thing exceptionally well as Billie’s Boss/ex-boyfriend, James.

However, it is Jon Foster, as Zach, who really saves the show. He’s charming, and his character is written better than any of the others. He’s a slacker without being a douchebag, cute without being dumb, young without being too naive. He has all of the qualities this character needs if the show is going to survive past the birth of the baby.

At the end of the pilot, I wasn’t completely sold on Accidentally on Purpose, but I wasn’t as against it as I had been before. I still have serious issues with the premise, but it displays a level of intelligence I wasn’t expecting to find. I’ll give it a few more episodes before I decide if it’s a show that rises above its premise, or if it’s a terrible idea that never should have left the page.

Clacked by Kona Gallagher
on Sep 23, 2009 @ 18:00 EST5EDT