Unhitched

Even when Unhitched isn't funny--and the second episode is definitely an improvement on the pilot, which tries too hard--it at least isn't vile.

Let's say Unhitched just isn't very funny.

The issue I have with the rape-by-orangutan scene in Unhitched is that it's not funny, nor does it even seem to be trying to be funny. It's lazy comedy, substituting shock value for wit and invention, and it typifies everything that follows on this lame excuse for a sitcom.

The Farrellys finish in second place [of having the dumbest show this Sunday], directing a sitcom, Unhitched (Sunday 9:30 p.m., Fox 29), about four clowns who struggle stupidly with their newly single status.

What works so well in the series is that the four friends are so distinctly different, and the writers are able to adjust the level of humor to each.

The actors do their best, but most of what they're doing is hopelessly, witlessly predictable.

The show feels completely derivative, it's wholly unconvincing that the central quartet would hang out together, and I'm frankly still fuzzy (mostly because after 10 minutes it's difficult to give a damn) on what connects them beyond the not-that-jarring status of being single again in their 30s and, well, "Seinfeld" did it.

There's not "a lot" of heart in the unhilarious Unhitched--in fact, barely any.

Most of its jokes and plots feel flat and predictable and it’s hard to get invested in a comedy that relies on the fact that its only minority character, a doctor of Indian descent, can’t get certain American slang terms right. Har har.

The show doesn't ever really develop a comic center, or a heart. It's just a bunch of pointless monkey business.

While Unhitched certainly contains its share of gross-out moments, these moments all feel so hopelessly forced and happen to characters we care so little about that they don't carry the comedic weight they should.

All in all, it is pretty thin and flat; there are jokes that work, and the cast is able, but not in the service of anything substantial.

The relatively no-name cast (which includes Craig Bierko as a recently dumped financial planner, Rashida Jones as a divorce lawyer better at managing breakups than relationships, and Johnny Sneed as a three-time-loser party boy) is excellent, and the goofball writing hilarious.... But this is buyer-beware territory, with something to offend practically everybody whose age or IQ exceeds 16.

Some of it is quite funny and so are the situations in which these four characters find themselves.

Unhitched is not frantic. The actors, led by laid-back Bierko, give appealing performances. If you don't mind a knockoff of Seinfeld, Unhitched could be for you.

Unhitched expends a wrestler’s energy aiming to offend and provoke, but no amount of outrageousness can mask its conformity.