IF ever a sitcom was slated for my personal “delete” button, for sure it was going to be “Accidentally On Purpose.”
How could I like a show that was hyped as a knockoff of “Knocked Up,” the only Judd Apatow movie that I found vile, sexist, and downright ugly for its horrid revulsion at women’s bodies. I hated it.
Now the good part: “Accidentally On Purpose” is a “Knocked Up” but made for women instead of for slacker fat guys.
Jenna Elfman plays Billie, a movie critic in San Francisco whose one-two-three-night stand with a much younger man (who looks roughly the same age actually, but never mind) she meets in a bar, ends in pregnancy.
The reason Billie got involved with Zack (Jon Foster) — a sous chef to a sous chef — in the first place is because her doesn’t-want-to-get-married-rich-boss-lover (played by Grant Show) has broken her heart. Oh, and she’s also drunk.
See, Billie’s out with her requisite Brit girlfriend (Ashley Jensen) and sister (Lennon Parham) at a club when the ex walks in (or so we’re told) with Kate Moss which is enough to send any girl off to find the beauty of a good Mojito.
Anyway, Zack has funny enough pick-up lines to get Billie to dance with him and one thing leads to another and another — and Billie finds herself having a sleepover in the nightmare place he shares with three slacker friends.
Then comes the wrong color on the pregnancy test.
But things could be worse.
For one thing, Zack’s a nice guy and for another he’s cute. And by then he’s also homeless.
His roommate’s brother has just been let out of jail and taken Zack’s room. So Zack is now living in his van.
Why the only gainfully employed person of the bunch gets the boot, I really can’t say other than it gives the character an excuse to move in with Billie and paint the nursery for her while she’s at work.
Yes, while the sous chef can’t even afford a room, the movie critic at the tiny San Fran publication makes enough to pay for an enormous two-bedroom in one of the most expensive cities in the US.
What saves the show, however, is some genuinely clever and funny dialogue.
When Billie reluctantly tells the man not of her dreams that she’s preggers, she lets him know how reluctant she is like this: “You don’t have to say anything, you don’t have to do anything. . .Just thought you should know in case you ever need a kidney in the future.”
Suspend all disbelief, pretend the really, really offensive laugh track doesn’t exist, disregard the giant slabs of ham offered up by Jensen and Parham, and enjoy the chemistry between Elfman and Foster.