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“Ben & Kate” is too sweet to be funny

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 19:11:00 +0000

One of the nice things about the TV shows not being canceled this fall is Fox’s “Ben & Kate.” The low-rated “Ben & Kate” airs on the network’s Tuesday night comedy bloc along with “New Girl,” “Raising Hope” and “The Mindy Project,” just one of the line-ups turning Tuesdays into a sort thunderdome for pop-culture comedies starring people born around the turn of the ‘80s. (See also, ABC’s “Happy Endings and “Don't Trust the B---- in Apt. 23” and NBC’s “The New Normal.”) It’s an immeasurably sweet show about an opposite, but perfectly paired brother and sister — they’re putting a new spin on the Jack Spratt nursery rhyme, something like “and so between the two of them, they raised one awesome kid.” “Ben & Kate” is a lovely show to spend time with, good company in that specific way television, functioning as a sort of friend-acquaintance, can sometimes be, but it’s about exactly as funny as a friend-acquaintance — which is not exactly high-level sitcom funny. “Ben & Kate” is more dramedy than comedy

Nat Faxon: Oscar-winning screenwriter and TV’s goofiest brother

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 20:00:00 +0000

Nat Faxon co-stars in Fox's freshman comedy "Ben & Kate," a sitcom about two doting but different siblings. He plays the titular Ben, an overgrown man-child who can be distinguished from Judd Apatow's brand of overgrown man-children by his insatiable enthusiasm and huge heart. Ben's not a slacker, he's not a hater and he's not too cool. He's more like a human puppy dog -- full of good intentions and more liable to slobber on your face than to hold a steady job. Faxon, in contrast, has lots of jobs. Earlier this year, he and his writing partner Jim Rash (who plays Dean on "Community" and whom he met performing with L.A.'s famed improv organization The Groundlings) won an Oscar for writing the script of George Clooney's "The Descendants." This past summer, the pair co-directed "The Way, Way Back," a movie starring Steve Carell. Faxon, who on the phone is almost as earnest but not nearly as goofy as Ben, talked about Ben's job history, the show's sad side and winning an Oscar.

You play a serious goofball on “Ben & Kate.”

“Ben & Kate”: Sweet new spin on the manchild and sexy sister

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:28:00 +0000

“Ben & Kate,” Fox’s new sitcom about two very devoted, but very different siblings premiering tonight, is a total sweetheart. On paper, it appears to be the meeting of two popular characterizations — find out what happens when a single lady on the prowl and the Apatovian manchild live in a house! But in execution, it takes the sting out of both of these archetypes, eschewing nastiness, championing unconditional love, and going down like a spoonful of sugar.

Based on the admittedly flimsy evidence of just one episode, “Ben & Kate” seems poised to be to the “20- to 30-somethings get their lives together” sub-genre what “Parks & Rec” is to workplace comedies: something willfully, wonderfully kind (that’s also making a secret argument for the competence of blond chicks).