MURPHY BROWN: I (Don’t) Heart Huckabee

After last week’s Twitter war with the president, Murphy ups the ante this week by sneaking in to a White House press briefing. Things don’t go exactly as she planned, and she isn’t the only one left disappointed.

Old News

Roz: That new EA this week might have been the worst I can remember in ages. All of that was gross, but not in a funny way.

Cara: Yeah, that was uncomfortable. For me, the show just feels old. I don’t mean the age of the characters, but the tone is to condescending and feels like it hasn’t kept up with the time. The big thing for me is diversity. I’ll give them credit for having people of color in many scenes. Nik Dodani is great as the new assistant, but the writing for him feels very lazy. I have a whole rant about taking such a great young actor and misusing him in this show, but that’s for another day.

New News

Roz: I’m all for Murphy being political – in fact that was one of my favorite parts of the original – but this attack at Press Secretary Sanders was not funny to me. We’ve seen the Press Secretary take so much (deserved and undeserved) but this shot felt below the belt, especially when it was meant to be in conjunction with Avery’s big day in the briefing room.

Cara: Avery and Pat might be the most interesting characters so far. Otherwise, the show is mostly political posturing and callbacks to the original show. I think there’s so much this show could do, especially given the explosion of political comedy by late night talk shows. Murphy Brown feels more like a platform to air grievances, but unfortunately they’re not doing much more right now.

Murphy Brown airs on CBS at 9:30 on Thursdays.