TVSquad

Here Come the Newlyweds, a new reality series in which freshly married couples compete for a cash prize, has been picked up by ABC for six episodes.

The series, created by Jay Blumenfield and Tony Marsh, is being pitched as a nicer reality series, one that focuses more on the humorous aspects of (newly) married life and not so much on exploiting human drama and misery. The couples facing off on the series include an arranged marriage, high school sweethearts and divorcees each on their fourth marriage.

I'm torn: is a reality show about divorcees helping their ex-spouses find a new love really uplifting or really creepy and disturbing?

I guess it doesn't matter what I think, because Bravo has given the "go ahead" to Take My Ex, a new reality series pilot in which divorced couples help their former spouses find love again. After all, who better to find you the man or woman of your dreams than the person you divorced because they themselves couldn't meet your emotional needs?

I've said before on this blog that I'm not a big fan of reality programming in general, but finally someone has come up with a concept that I can relate to. The new reality pilot from producers Bernie Mac and Ben Silverman is called Welcome to the Family and focuses on couples of different races, religions and cultural backgrounds who get engaged and have to tell their respective families for the first time.

The reason this concept speaks to me is that I actually marry and divorce a person from a different background every week. But this isn't about me, so let's move on.

(S02E13) This is an early review.

Tom Peters has a less than stellar marriage, and it's been implied, though never blatantly shown, that his wife Joy might be unfaithful. The real question doesn't seem to be why Joy cheats on Tom, but how an ugly screaming whale of a woman like her would be able to find someone willing to make love to her. Of course, plenty of men dig the rotund dames, but Joy manages to make herself unpleasant in so many other ways that seems like a moot point.

Part of enjoying Tom Goes to the Mayor --and I think by this point those who don't enjoy the show have moved on to other things-- is that it exists in a world pretty much void of any adherence to physical or moral laws. Tom has been killed, gone to hell, inexplicably transported both his father and the Mayor to an airplane in mid-flight, and been trapped underwater with a tiny man trapped inside him. He's also married to a woman who hates his guts, and it's never made clear why they're married. If you start asking these kind of questions, though, you really shouldn't be watching the show in the first place.

The latest episode of Everybody Hates Chris, which centered around Valentine's Day, had several laugh out loud moments and more than made up for last week's episode, which, while still good, could have been better.