TV Review: My Boys

As the old saying goes, everything that's old is new again, and that's the case with the new TBS sitcom My Boys. This new half hour comedy stars Jordan Spiro as P.J. Franklin, a sports writer for the Chicago Sun Times. She portrays the typical tomboy who has grown up, and is now surrounded more by male friends than female, and struggling as a single woman in the big city. About the only recognizable face among her group of male cohorts is stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan, who plays her older brother Andy.

As I watched the series premier, and one follow-up episode Tuesday night, I was struck immediately by how closely it resembled another show that TBS has picked up in syndication, Sex and the City. In fact, the similarities are apparent in the very first scene, where we here a voiceover by P.J., often times relating relationships to sports as she's writing her column. Carrie Bradshaw, anyone?

In fact, the entire premise of the show is really based on the same mold as Sex and the City. Syndicated writer who has relationship issues, and is surrounded by a small, very close knit group of friends, who all help each other out with their relationship problems, or in some cases cause those problems. The only difference is that the small group of friends are all men, instead of other women. Instead of the local restaurant where the four girls meet on Sex and the City, My Boys features a weekly poker game at P.J.'s house.

And just as the first major plot point on Sex and the City was Carrie's possible, or not possible, relationship with "Mr. Big", My Boys has gone the same route. The first two episodes concentrate on a new relationship with coworker Bobby Newman (played by Kyle Howard). The relationship immediately runs into problems, when he doesn't know how to handle a tomboy type who makes him feel more like a woman than she is. Added to that is the fact that the other guy friends of P.J.'s want to add him into the gang, instead of allowing the relationship to bud. Is there something there or isn't there? It all seems so very familiar.

Article Author: Nick Schweitzer

Nick Schweitzer is a software consultant in the Milwaukee area. In his spare time he is an amatuer triathlete, political pundit, and is a recovering geek. He maintains two blogs: The World According to Nick and The Coding Monkey.

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