How YOU doin'? Well, I suck

I specifically avoided the big premiere of the Friends' spinoff, Joey. If you want to see if a show is any good, watch the second episode. The second episode will give you a much better idea as to where the show is heading, how good the writing is, if the show is any good.

So, I tuned into to NBC last night 8p/7 central. And was highly disappointed. The plot of this episode involved Joey trying to teach the nephew he lives with about picking up chicks. But, the nephew's mother, Joey's sister, dropped in just before they were about to hit the bar scene. She wanted to go with then, even saying, "I make a great wingman." What kind of mother offers to help her son pick up chicks?

Let me put this plot in perspective. This would be like my wife going out with her brother and her son. Ask yourself, can you really see that happening? In the show, it was treated like they just didn't want to hang out with her. They didn't address how un-cool it would be for the kid to be out with Moms. I'm sorry, I know it's a sitcom, but how about a little bit of realism.

Plus, the jokes are lame. In fairness, I can't remember them, but that alone should be a good sign at how this show sucked. You can only take Joey's stupidity for so long before you just don't care about the character anymore. That's why he was great in Friends. You had 5 other people you could care for.

In Indianapolis, the first episode pulled in a nice 18.1 in the ratings. Many people didn't return to the second episode as it pulled a 13.2. That's quite a drop-off for a show that's expected to anchor Must See TV Thursdays. It'll be interesting to see how the third episode does in the ratings. Despite how much it sucked, I imagine Joey will survive at least through one season. I can't see NBC admitting it fucked up Thursdays so quickly.

In defense of Joey, really how much of a chance did it have? Spin-offs don't work well with a major character from the original show. You might say what about Frasier? But, the character in Cheers was hardly a major one. Cheers was all about Sam and Diane or Rebecca. In all sincerity, I think "Gunther" or "Frank, Jr." would have been 100 times better than Joey.