While it’s hard to really hate Fox’s new sitcom, “I Hate My Teenage Daughter,” it’s not all that easy to love it, either.
The series centers around single moms/best friends Annie (Jaime Pressly) and Nikki (Katie Finneran) who were nerds in high school.
They want to make sure their horrid teen daughters don’t suffer the same fate.
Annie, as embodied by the perfect Pressly — clearly too gorgeous to have been shunned ever — says she was miserably lonely because she was raised in a fundamentalist religious home and dressed like she escaped from “Little House on the Prairie,” which she wasn’t allowed to watch.
Nikki says she was a fatty and makes jokes such as the one about how she went to her prom in her father’s chicken truck and how the kids in school filled her locker with drumsticks. Now, her daughter hates her.
It’s like “Mildred Pierce.” Chickens inevitably lead to daughter-disgust.
Anyway, these two moms want their spoiled teenage daughters (Kristi Lauren and Aisha Dee) to have every gorgeous thing they never had.
How they afford it all is amazing since Annie’s a waitress and Nikki doesn’t work.
For sure they aren’t getting rich from their exes. Annie’s ex, Matt (Eric Sheffer Stevens), is a rock musician (not rock star) and Nikki’s ex, Gary (Chad Coleman), a golf pro — not a pro golfer.
Worse, Annie is in lust with her ex brother-in-law, Jack (Kevin Rahm). Every time he shows up, Annie starts to pant like a dog in heat. Talk about ick!
The mothers are pathetically scared of their own daughters and are willing to do anything to make them happy, which isn’t fun.
The only fun comes from Pressly and Finneran, who are so likeable they almost overcome the overwrought action.
Annie the waitress unfortunately only serves up standard sitcom fare.
At least it’s not chicken.