The Cast's Chemistry Makes Mom

Alexis Bradley ’17/ Emertainment Monthly Staff
Mom is a new sitcom being released this fall on CBS. The series focuses on the dysfunctional relationship between a recovering alcoholic single mother, and her own mom. It also showcases the relationship that she has with her children.
The main character of this new series created by Chuck Lorre is Christy (Anna Faris), a once aspiring psychologist now turned waitress. On top of that, she is also a high school dropout with two kids. Now free from a foggy alcoholic cloud, she can see her life as what it truly is: depressing. Despite her resistance to avoid being like her own screwed up mother, Bonnie (Allison Janney), Christy has become the spitting image. After two years of an “angry silence,” mother and daughter reunited on the request of Violet (Sadie Calvano), Christy’s daughter, who won’t be able to forgive her unless she forgives Bonnie.
The plot itself is a gruesome thing. It represents everything people are generally afraid of becoming. The whole story could easily be played as a drama, or even worse, a soap opera. But it is a premise that laughs at itself, by being well aware of the sad, pitiful situation its characters are undergoing. Christy rolls with the punches and takes the disappointments as they come. Anna Faris dos an amazing job playing up the comedic side of it, while also portraying that humanistic feeling.  The dynamic she has with Allison Janney is as glorious as one should expect. Janney herself nearly steals all the scenes she’s in. Her character almost acts in juxtaposition with Faris, one who is unhappy with her life, as Janney’s “Bonnie” seems to relish in it. Saddie Calvano even blended in well between these two great actressed with great facial expressions and line delivery.
Yes, the plot does retain a certain predictability, but it also contains a few twists as well. The twists themselves are usually the punchline to a joke, and most of them actually work.  However, some of the side characters are a bit off.  Matt Jones as Baxter, the baby daddy, lacks a voice and delivery that was on par with the rest of the cast. Some of the jokes do fall flat, especially the ones where Faris’ character literally congratulates herself on being funny, though it doesn’t bring the episode down as a whole.
The great casting really helped to make this more than a little amusing viewing for me. The characters’ dynamic is the strongest thing in this show. As a promising plot, it’s a show I’ll definitely be keep taps on during the season. Whether I’m still holding onto the reigns by the end of it, however, is still something to be determined.