Rejoice, college students! At long last, Ted Danson is finally back on television. This time, he's not playing an ex-ballplayer-turned-bartender or a disgruntled doctor. Actually...he is playing a disgruntled doctor, but now he's a psychiatrist. (On "Becker," he was just a regular physician.)
Danson returns to television on "Help Me Help You" as Dr. Bill Hoffman, a psychiatrist who just might be more messed up than his seriously messed-up patients. Hoffman holds group therapy sessions with five troubled souls every Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. on ABC.
Although "Help Me Help You" is not breaking any new comedic ground by covering therapy sessions, some of the characters' issues seem fresh. For instance, Inger (Suzy Nakamura) meets men on JDate, the Web site for Jewish singles, because apparently Jews are the only men who do not intimidate her. Dave (Charlie Finn), another therapy session attendee, starts visiting Dr. Hoffman after jumping out the window of his office building only to land on his boss, thus rendering the defenestration useless.
The other characters are a bit more textbook: There's your token anger management patient, a woman with every complex in the book - most glaringly, an unhealthy sexual appetite - and a gay guy in deep denial.
Meanwhile, their doctor has issues of his own: Hoffman's marriage of 20 years has crashed and burned, and, to top it off, his wife is sleeping with the guy who sold him his Volvo. In what was quickly diagnosed as a bout of "latent childhood anger over [Hoffman's] constant absence," his daughter Sasha (Lindsay Sloane) is dating her psychology professor, a man 30 years her senior.
Some parts of "Help Me Help You" are funny, though most of the show just personifies mediocrity. You can take it or leave it; the show is by no means painful to sit through, but its not a laugh-a-minute riot either.
Sitcoms don't have to be (and often aren't) full of hysterically funny moments, but they should be witty and smart - or at least goofy and irreverent. Given the nature of the show and its main characters, "Help Me Help You" should fall into the witty and smart category, but, unfortunately, its not quite there.
It remains to be seen whether or not audiences will grow to sympathize with any of these characters. Certainly, by the end of episode one, all rejoice as the suicidal guy meets a girl equally as depressed as he is, although the relationship is not multifaceted enough to evoke sincere interest just yet.
Inger is undoubtedly the most amusing character on the show: so self-aware, yet so unable to function normally in any sort of social setting. Nakamura's straight-faced delivery of her lines is well executed and provides some of the more entertaining moments on the show.
Danson has played so many cocky characters in his career that he could do the wacky narcissist thing with his eyes closed. And who can blame him? Even with a full head of grey hair, he still looks good.
Aside from his hair, his character is also a well known, well-off psychiatrist with 12 different medical degrees to his credit. It is clear that Hoffman is not used to losing, so after his wife confirms that she is leaving him, he tries to smash up his seemingly indestructible car. The scene mostly falls flat, but there is a small payoff for the viewer with a well trained eye and a basic knowledge of psychology: The license plate of his car reads "4everjung."
Ah, Carl Jung, not only are you one of the founders of modern psychology, but your name-that-is-not-pronounced-like-you-would-think finally provides a quality laugh on a not-so-spectacular sitcom.
