Mad Love - S1 E2 - Friends and Other Obstacles

Ben and Elliott Kate's first date is somewhat haphazard and interrupted by their respective best friends.

Recap after the jump.

If you're wondering what the hell that thing is on Jason Biggs' face, I can confirm that he is indeed rockin' a Gary Neville mustache. So I decided to give this show another shot and it went better this week - it felt more settled at least. Ben (Jason Biggs) and Kate (Sarah Chalke) are having trouble matching up their schedules for a date so Kate just invites him to have dinner at her apartment in the evening. When he gets up there, Connie (Judy Greer) is still hanging around waiting for a date of her own and he admits that Larry (Tyler Labine) has to swing by later to collect a file. They get to talking and jobs are established more clearly - he's an undefeated ace attorney (28-0) and she's a property manager who enjoys making use of the "secret tunnels".

Larry gets there and notices that Connie is watching the Knicks play on TV so invites himself to stay since he has money riding on the game. Connie isn't keen on being in his presence so she heads for the kitchen and enters unannounced, slamming the door into Kate's backside making her spill her wine all over Jim's Ben's shirt. She is ushered out and forced to sit with Larry and watch the game while Ben cooks. They start making bets all of which Connie wins, much to his chagrin. Her date, Dale, being very late, he bets her that he won't show up.

Enlisting Kate's help, she heads for their next door neighbor Clyde and convinces him to pretend to be Dale. He agrees and enters the apartment looking fairly suspicious being scruffy looking and sporting a clothed pet iguana. Larry interrogates him and rumbles the truth by inspecting the iguana's collar. While all this drama is going on, Ben forgets about the food and its ruined. As he makes to leave the kitchen, Connie enters unannounced again, slamming the door in his face knocking him out. One trip to the emergency room later, Kate packs Larry and Connie away in a taxi and goes up to enjoy some hospital food and alone time with Ben.

I could do without narration at the beginning and end of the episode by Larry but otherwise this worked fine as a half hour comedy. It wasn't anything special, but it got me laughing in spots which is all that really matters. The cast is strong enough that there is good potential moving forward if they can keep their act together. Even though they are all pretty much playing to type, that type has worked for them in the past so really it's not such a big issue as I'm sure some critics might make it out to be, even though there's a good chance I might start getting confused and thinking Kate is an error prone doctor. I guess I misunderstood something, it's Connie who is the nanny and I guess the hot blonde chick was the mom of those kids in the pilot. Well, I'll be watching this for the rest of the season even if it dips back down in quality. That's just my nature unfortunately.

"Mad Love" airs Mondays on CBS at 8:30 pm EST.