Mike and Molly

The Bride and I watched quite a few of the new series that debuted these new Fall TV season. We watched episode after episode, unsure if we really liked what we saw or not, and asking each other, sometimes comically, after each one - "Did we like this?" and deciding sometimes hesitantly - "We'll give it another episode."

One of these shows was "Mike and Molly." Being proud geeks and nerds with no shame, we both like Chuck Lorre's "The Big Bang Theory" quite a bit and were saturated with promotion for "Mike and Molly" during that program. It seemed like worth a look, so we gave it a shot. The series follows a couple, both quite overweight, a cop, Mike, and a teacher, Molly, as their relationship slowly evolves from dating to serious. As far as a relationship show, it's successful, but the humor often flows from their size and weight.

We were not fans of "The Big Bang Theory" at first. We eventually caught up with it after a few seasons. The reason we didn't dig it at first was that most of the humor was based on nerdiness, and was more of the laughing-at-us type rather than the laughing-with-us stuff. We tired quickly of being made fun of. Now, the show is more edgy and in sync with the subculture, and for us, funnier.

"Mike and Molly" operates on much the same formula, only against bigger people instead of nerds. I might be making much of this as fat people have always been made fun of, but really, isn't this just lazy writing? Taking the cheapest shot possible. Racial humor is only a step below. It's all discrimination.

All that said, "Mike and Molly" has a lot going for it. Their romance is heartwarming and awkward and real. Other than fat jokes, a lot of the more recent humor has been sexual in nature, much of it coming from the comic genius of Swoosie Kurtz. And the wonderfully talented Nyambi Nyambi as the coffee shop owner is the highlight of every episode. We'll stay with this a while, and hopefully it can mature past the fat jokes.