tek's rating:

Imaginary Mary, on ABC
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Jenna Elfman plays a PR executive named Alice, who begins dating a contractor named Ben, who is divorced and raising three children: teenagers Andy and Dora, and 6-year-old Bunny. When Alice was little, her parents got divorced, and her imaginary friend, a CGI creature named Mary (voiced by Rachel Dratch), helped her get through that difficult time in her life. And Mary kept helping Alice deal with life's problems until... well, until Alice lost her virginity, at age 18. Then, Mary faded away. But now, she's shown up again, all these years later, to help Alice deal with her fear of trying to interact with Ben's kids, as well as her relationship with Ben himself being more serious than any of Alice's previous relationships.

So... the show was not well-received, critically. And it was cancelled after its 9-episode first season. Which didn't really disappoint me. I thought it was a reasonably amusing show, with reasonably likable characters. But Mary was never as big a part of the plot as I expected she would be, and that's a good thing. It would have been better if she'd never been part of the show's premise at all (which of course would mean it needed a different title). I mean, Mary could be mildly amusing, sometimes, but for the most part she seemed superfluous, I thought. It still wouldn't have been a great show without Mary, but I think it would have had a better chance of renewal without her.


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