Because even the first time around, Mad About You was just kind of fine, you know? Never as daring or groundbreaking as its channelmate Seinfeld, it was content to just be a punchline delivery system, heavy on ’90s New York sarcasm, and a showcase for Reiser and Hunt, who always had a nice banter between them. It was just good enough to get you to not change the channel before Frasier came on, and that was good enough to earn it a healthy seven-season run. But nobody ran to get home in time to watch Mad About You, right? It was always the ultimate C-plus TV show — and so it’s fitting that the revival is pretty much more of the same, for better or worse.
Mad About You always worked best as a two-person show, though, and the addition of Mabel as a full-fledged character alongside Paul and Jamie is an awkward fit. (Landline‘s Abby Quinn does what she can with a limited role.) Plus, as a parent of a college-age child, Jamie is obnoxiously overbearing, which doesn’t really fit her personality from the original series. (She was always the one talking the more anxious Paul off the ledge.) Hunt isn’t served particularly well here in general; Episode 3 has her sweating ridiculously in a hacky menopause subplot. And the show’s attempts to step into the modern era are CBS-level clumsy, like when Paul has a cringe-worthy run-in with a classroom full of woke NYU students.
None of this is great art, by any stretch… but I still found myself feeling a certain affection for it. Episode 4 in particular, which finds Paul and Jamie arguing over him not offering her a toothpick after a meal, is vintage low-stakes situation comedy. Maybe it’s just the ’90s nostalgia talking, but with all the exhausting twists and serialized storylines that TV shows throw at us now, it’s kind of nice to relax with some mild, palatable laughs served at a leisurely pace. This is the kind of show you can doze off for a few minutes while watching and not miss anything important… and I mean that as a compliment. Reiser and Hunt’s veteran presence and the nostalgia factor help nudge it slightly above your standard sitcom, and maybe that’s enough to earn a spot on your holiday watch list. (If you’re a Spectrum subscriber, that is.) As Paul might say: You could do worse.
THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Spectrum’s Mad About You revival is the same mildly pleasant sitcom you remember from the ’90s… for better or worse.