The New Adventures of Old Christine – A Guaranteed LOL Every Week

Who out there was a fan of Seinfeld? Whoa. I see lots of hands, and mine’s stretched into the air as well. It’s true. Now I’m typing with one hand. Seriously, though, if you enjoyed Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ character Elaine (Seinfeld) there is absolutely no reason you won’t get a kick out of Christine Campbell. I chose to write about this series because it’s one of my “musts” every week, and I’m continually surprised by how few people seemed to have discovered it.

As a way of recapping the past seasons and introducing the characters, here is a brief summary as well as some of my favorite moments. Christine Campbell (Louis-Dreyfus) and Richard Campbell (Clark Gregg) are the divorced parents of Ritchie (Trevor Gagnon). Richard is engaged to New Christine (Emily Rutherford) while Old Christine lives with her brother, Matthew (Hamish Linklater). She runs a gym with Barb, her divorced friend who is also her wife, played by Wanda Sykes. Barb is from the Bahamas, and in order to avoid deportation she and Christine got married. Now that gay marriage is illegal again in CA, she is still in the country illegally. Old Christine is insecure about being divorced and getting old, causing her to make her son a dependent momma’s boy. Also, she drinks too much, dates a lot, always says the wrong thing, and is lazy.

Their son goes to a snooty private school and several story lines revolve around Christine being picked on by the blonde, surgically enhanced, still married mothers. Christine and her brother have an odd (sometimes bordering on inappropriate) relationship that’s always good for a laugh. Basically, they are totally comfortable with who the other person is and don’t bother pulling any punches. Which results in hilarity. Early in the series Old Christine has been up all night worrying about something and finally decides to go talk to her brother about it. She gets out of bed in her nightgown, trudges out the back door to her brother’s little apartment, and knocks. He opens the door in his bathrobe, sees his sister, and without hesitation says, “This better not be about American Idol.” Bang. That’s their relationship.

Old Christine’s relationship with Barb is an ongoing nightmare, as from week to week there is no clear reason presented why Barb would stay friends with her at all. Wanda Sykes is always hilarious, and her sidekick role in this show is no exception. One of my favorite Barb moments was when she slept with Matthew (the brother) after her divorce. They quickly realized they had no feelings for each other, but continued to keep up a relationship charade to freak out Old Christine. Richard (the ex) and Old Christine have an interesting relationship, and are still friends while both totally agree they are much better apart. Old Christine and New Christine are friendly, though New Christine gets irked about the amount of time Richard spends getting his ex-wife out of trouble or talking her down off ledges.

My favorite Richard moment was last season, when Ritchie gets sent home from school with lice. Old Christine is considering changing schools after the way she was treated (again) and goes off to an interview while Richard and Matthew stay home to de-louse the kid. When Christine gets home, they are all sitting in the kitchen with olive oil on their hair covered by plastic wrap. Apparently, this is the remedy they came up with on the internet. Old Christine makes a big deal about Richard treating himself as well, since he is almost completely bald and one must have hair to have lice. She tells them to get cleaned up and get to the new school, because the principal wants to meet Ritchie. When they arrive, all of their hair is slicked down and oily from their ‘treatment.’ Old Christine freaks out because they look like the Addams Family, then turns on her ex – “Richard, what are you doing? You’re a tiny mustache away from invading Poland!” One of the Best. Lines. Ever.

The writers are insane on this show, and I mean it in a good way. Sometimes they take things just a step farther than I would, or than is necessary, but it always makes me laugh. The actors have settled into these parts, and the dialogue dances off their tongues. It’s funny, it’s quirky, and we’re never stuck too long in one plot line wondering when the heck they are going to move on. I always encourage people to watch it, so now I’m encouraging you. I promise, if you don’t crack up at some point in the first episode you watch, I’ll stop eating Hershey’s Kisses for a week. Okay, a day. Maybe. Seriously, though, if it doesn’t make you laugh, there might be something wrong with you. Just sayin.

Wednesdays at 8/7c on CBS

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Photographs courtesy of CBS.