Mad Love

Labine and Greer completely hijack the show, and almost threaten to turn Biggs (you'll remember him from "American Pie") and Chalke ("Scrubs." "Roseanne") into props. A well-made and skillfully executed sitcom. Oh--almost forgot--fun, too.

Chronicling the opposite relationships requires Mad Love to bounce from light romantic comedy to murderously hostile wisecracks and back again, which it accomplishes with considerable deftness. The show's quick wit is matched with a talented cast, particularly Labine.

It would be a stretch to call Mad Love subtle--one running gag is an elevator that stops a few inches short of the floor--but neither does it feel compelled to spell out every nuance, like how Larry and Connie really feel about each other.

I don't know what's mad about this love, but CBS's new rom-com, Mad Love at least has some laughs.

What this comedy has is the charm of its brash comic energy. That it's an energy located mostly in a single character, and not the main one either--officially, anyway-makes little difference.

Of the couples comedies to debut so far this midseason--NBC's "Perfect Couples" in January, Fox's "Traffic Light" last week--CBS's "Mad Love" (8:30 tonight, KDKA-TV) is probably the best. That's not to say it's a great show, but it is the least groan-inducing.

Despite feeling like the concept owes quite a bit to the British series Gavin & Stacey, and a nagging suspicion that the evolution of one couple completely smitten and the other ready to spit on each other will take a long time to come around to four friends and two happy couples, that's not a problem if the jokes are funny. So far, so good.

Mad doesn't stray far from "Mother's" formula

Mad Love is not a bad show, but, judging from its first outing, it's not immediately deserving of the caliber of actors it managed to secure for its primary quartet.

OK, it's not Chekhov or even "How I Met Your Mother," to which it will inevitably be compared, but it's a lot better than the I'll-do-anything-for-pizza jokes that precede it.

It's pleasant enough, but has the potential to stand out only in the manner and pace at which Connie and Larry unspool, without the fairy-tale sparks enjoyed by Ben and Kate.

The semi-dreaded but not altogether unwelcome "not terrible" tag is visited upon CBS' latest Monday night comedy entry.

If Mad Love pushes toward a more distinctive identity and grows beyond TV's standard two-couple romantic situations, there may be hope.

It's a likable cast and the show seems a potentially good companion to "HIMYM" (these characters even hang out in a bar that looks a bit like the "HIMYM" bar shifted 90 degrees), but there's one problem: It's not especially funny. Not yet, anyway.

This is Mad Love, which takes a good cast--however tired I am of Labine playing the same guy--and forces them to try to make themselves heard over people who seem to think everything they say is hilarious.

Maybe they'll be back for more. Maybe they'll be canceled. It's hard to imagine anyone getting mad if that happened or loving the show enough to do much about it. Maybe they should have called it Sort of Annoying Like.

Too bad that's not more wonder in this very familiar show. There's nothing really wrong with Mad Love. There's just nothing new about any of it.

Heartbreakingly enough, "bland" is the best you can expect from Mad Love, a mediocre example of TV's most overworked, underproductive sitcom subset, the romantic comedy.

Love may mean never having to say you're sorry, but Mad Love should apologize profusely. In short: There are better ways to spend Valentine's Day.

They've done very funny work in other shows and movies, from Scrubs to Saving Silverman to 13 Going on 30. If the show would deemphasize its already tired premise, it might be another decent comedy about four quirky friends in the city

It's hard to judge a show by a single episode (although, in some cases--NBC's "Perfect Couples," for example--the stench is instantly convincing), but Mad Love has at least the seeds of eventual success.

Like dozens of recent network comedies, Mad Love feels as though it was focus-grouped until any edges it might have had were completely worn away.