Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Hamish Linklater in The New Adventures of Old Christine by Mitchell Haddad/Warner Bros. Television/CBS
The when: Mondays at 9:30pm/ET. Season 3 premieres Feb. 4.
Why watch?: Remember back when traditional sitcoms were funny? Turns out some still are, and The New Adventures of Old Christine is one of them. You don't have to be a Seinfeld lover (or even a Seinfeld tolerator) to appreciate Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Emmy-winning work as the titular "Old" Christine Campbell, a woman whose bizarrely close relationship with her ex-husband and his twentysomething girlfriend (also named Christine, get it?) is eclipsed only by her even more bizarre relationship with her live-in brother. While she's more likely to vote for the next American Idol than for president, and she repeatedly confuses racism with anti-environmentalism, she's also managing to raise a (semi-) well-adjusted son and run her own business. And though the New Christine/Old Christine dynamic can be trying at times, the scenes between Old Christine, ex-husband Richard and their close friend Barb (a truly dynamic Wanda Sykes) can be gut-bustingly funny.
Who's who?: Christine spent most of last season lusting after Mr. Daniel Harris (played by Blair Underwood), her son Ritchie's teacher. Former amour Richard (Clark Gregg) is mostly out of the picture romantically, and in a stable relationship with New Christine (Emily Rutherfurd). Brother Matthew (Hamish Linklater) and the aforementioned Barb, while not without their own quirks, are voices of reason to the increasingly off-the-wall thoughts of Richard and Christine. If she ever wanted to defend her thought processes, Christine could claim extreme mental anguish caused by the ever-present and always hilariously evil "Mean Moms" at Ritchie’s tony private school (played to the hilt by Alex Kapp Horner and Tricia O'Kelly).
What's next?: Last we tuned in, with Richard and New Christine temporarily broken up, he and Old Christine (on the cusp of a relationship with Daniel) slept together, prompting a pregnancy scare:
Christine: "What if I sleep with Daniel real fast and then I can tell him the baby is his?"
Barb: "Really? You can't think of anything wrong with that plan?"
Luckily, Ritchie wound up not getting a sibling, and New Christine was spared the knowledge of her boyfriend's dalliance. In the season premiere, Christine is chockablock with anxiety over her and Daniel's first time between the sheets.
Say what?!: Though it’s the first show to break the so-called Seinfeld curse, Old Christine has deep ties to Larry David's empire. Wanda Sykes starred on Curb Your Enthusiasm, while Mean Mom Alex Kapp Horner played one of George Costanza's girlfriends late in the series. Likewise, Jennifer Crittenden, a former Seinfeld producer, is credited with writing three episodes of Christine. Finally, in an odd confluence of events, last year, the Louis-Dreyfus comedy was relocated at midseason to make room for Rules of Engagement, which stars Patrick Warburton, aka David Puddy, Elaine's monosyllabic beau.
What do you say? Is Old Christine funny enough to stave off the demise of the traditional sitcom? — Leah Friedman
Let our Online Video Guide preview Old Christine's new season for you.
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