Underemployed

Underemployed is one of the most enjoyably upbeat twentysomething scripted dramas to hit prime time in ages.

The plotting of the pilot is a bit too pat at times, but two subsequent episodes bolster the argument that Underemployed deserves a shot at going full-time.

Despite the familiarities, the cheerfulness of this group helps the show overcome its predictability and other faults.

It remains to be seen if Underemployed will have time to spread its dramatic wings and shake off its ham-fisted preachiness--but it's off to a promising, if predictable, start.

While it tries to stay in the hip genre of new-school dramedy, it often tilts toward traditional soap and sitcom.

There is a story to be made from this, about aspiration and achievement and what goes on in the gap between them, but that is not a story that television, or any other form of American mass culture, particularly likes to tell. Underemployed flirts with it but more often settles for flattering its audience, reflecting not only its hopes but also its resentments.

We've been down this road before and all the signposts of Underemployed look the same.

Like a lot of newly minted grads, Underemployed doesn't qualify as an instant success. Yet viewed in the context of its ambitions, neither can it be dismissed as an underachiever.

The largely unknown cast is game and not unskilled, but it can't make up for the familiar situations and unremarkable dialogue.

Underemployed is simply and irreparably underwhelming.