Shows You Should Be Watching: 1600 Penn

This is going to be the first in a new series of posts for me.  I watch a lot of TV and I'm always trying to get people to watch shows that I enjoy, and what better place than my blog?  With cancellation season unfortunately looming ahead, I'll probably start off with shows that are sadly on the brink of cancellation in the hope that you'll watch them, love them, and tell all your friends to watch them too so they have a better shot at getting renewed.

I have to admit, when I started seeing promos for 1600 Penn on NBC, I was more than a little skeptical.  It looked cheesy, corny, and didn't look like there could be any more jokes in it than there were in the promos.  But after I watched it, my mind changed completely.  1600 Penn is a delightful addition to the NBC Comedy Thursday lineup.  Unlike the rest of the shows in the lineup (now that Up All Night's future is up in the air), it's more of a family sitcom, but that's what gives it its charm.  I've seen a lot of comparisons to Modern Family, but I wouldn't say that.  While Modern Family does have storylines about the kids, they're always in the background.  1600 Penn brings the kids' storylines to the front, especially with Becca and Skip, and that's what makes it stand out to me.

The Gilchrist children are completely loveable at first sight.  There's Skip (Josh Gad), the bumbling romantic who can't seem to get anything right.  There's Becca (Martha MacIssac), the intelligent, ambitious oldest daughter who got knocked up in a one-night stand (by a guy who's even dumber than Skip).  Then there are the twins, Xander (Benjamin Stockham) and Marigold (Amara Miller), who couldn't be more different.  Xander is a typical nerd, while Marigold has a crush on the most popular girl in school (a brilliant move on the writers' part, by the way- it's dealt with so subtly that it's absolutely perfect).

The parents (Bill Pullman and Jenna Elfman) are great as well.  Stepmom Emily is trying to win over the kids, while Dale tries hard to balance being the President with being a dad.  Skip and Becca completely steal the show, though.  Becca fights with the father of her child over whether they're going to paint a mural of Marie Curie or Iron Man on the nursery wall.  Skip only has to write a 25 page paper to graduate college but he only is able to finish it after Emily physically wrestles him into doing it.  Their storylines crack me up week in and week out.

1600 Penn has been neither cancelled nor confirmed for a second season yet, but I'm hoping it's the latter.  The storylines are great and original and there's plenty of room for the plot to grow in future seasons.  How will Becca manage being a mom?  Will Skip's bumbling attempts at romance ever work?  What about re-election campaigns- how will the kids play into those?  Hopefully the writers get the chance to tell these and other stories about the Gilchrist family, because I'm looking forward to more 1600 Penn in the future.