RIGHT off, let me say that “Sordid Lives,” the new sitcom on Logo, has the makings of a great show.
It has great stars – Bonnie Bedelia, Rue McClanahan, Caroline Rhea, Leslie Jordan and Olivia Newton-John for starters.
It has great characters – three crazy, big-haired Texas sisters, their crazy mother, their lunatic brother who channels Tammy Wynette, a son who hasn’t come out yet, and a bunch of psychiatrists.
What “Sordid Lives” doesn’t have is genuine fun.
It’s like watching a drag show – you know, when you’re supposed to laugh because we’re conditioned to laugh on cue. But in reality, it’s forced, er, gaiety.
For starters, the characters here are all so broad that even the actual women are done up like men in drag. It would have been better if it were less like a burlesque and more like a comedy.
The only one who is not supposed to be a joke is Ty (Jason Dottley), the son of Latrelle (Bedelia). Ty’s an actor who hasn’t come out to his to his Republican Baptist family.
Like Marilyn on “The Munsters,” Ty is the normal one in a sea of crazies. For example, the show is peppered with over-the-top dialogue, like, “My mama always told me that if you masturbate you go blind and a little kitten dies!”)
Ty has just met Jacob (Ted Detwiler) at an audition. The part calls for Ty to appear nude and Jacob tells him tenderly: “Maybe I can help you with that – you know, being comfortable in your own skin. It’s very empowering. Freeing. Claiming who you really are!”
Yes, I guess, as long as who you are is a cheeseball.
The show opens on the day Tammy Wynette died – 10 years ago.
Brother Boy (Jordan), in full drag, is in the looney bin threatening to jump; a neighbor with no legs (David Steen) wants to have sex with his wife; and Granny (McClanahan) is missing because she went to bail out Bitsy (Newton-John), on whom she seems to have a crush. Everyone else is just a professional kook, Texas-style.
Acting from the veterans is top-notch, but the whole thing comes off a bit like Liberace channeling Elizabeth Taylor. In Texas, too much is never enough. But me? I live in New York City.
“Sordid Lives”
Tonight at 10 on Logo