THE only thing memora ble about this new am nesia comedy is the show’s star, Christina Applegate.
She plays the title character in “Samantha Who?” – a woman who hits her head after someone nearly runs her over (you’ll find out who, eventually) and then spends two weeks in a coma.
When she wakes up, she no longer remembers anything about her past life, which turns out to be a good thing because the old Samantha was apparently the world’s biggest jerk – a nasty, self-centered drunk among other things, who ran roughshod over her mild-mannered boyfriend while cheating on him with a married international playboy.
Now, as a result of her amnesia, she’s morphed into a wide-eyed innocent who is appalled when she gradually learns the truth about her former self.
The truth comes out in bits and pieces as she reacquaints herself with her friends (Jennifer Esposito plays her best galpal, a fellow lush) and family (Jean Smart and Kevin Dunn play her parents), who are, of course, as obnoxious as she was.
In the first two episodes ABC provided for preview, Applegate’s co-stars don’t make much of an impression.
The opposite can be said for her, however. Not only is she enormously likable (and cute as a bug’s ear), but she demonstrates that she just might be the most capa ble comic ac tress on televi sion (sorry, Julia Louis- Dreyfus).
As appealing as she is, the show itself struggles to produce laughs.
I sat here like a stone while watching these two episodes – which is unusual for me since my sense of humor takes a backseat to no man’s, or woman’s (you can ask anyone).
“Samantha Who?” contains two things I can always live without in a TV series – expository narration (Samantha’s voice) designed to ensure that the stupidest members of the audience will understand what’s going on, while insulting the intelligence of everyone else; and the Gwen Stefani song “The Sweet Escape.”
Is it my imagination, or is that song heard on every TV show these days?
For some reason, I can’t remember.