6. Trophy Wife

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChWtLDLFSuo&w=584&h=390]

ABC has a knack for creating good shows with terrible fucking titles, and Trophy Wife is no exception. I think that with Cougar Town, Happy Endings and Don’t Trust the B now gone, ABC had some sort of quotient to fill with this show, the best new comedy you’re totally unlikely to check out. From Private Practice’s Emily Halpern, this is a surprisingly deft, observant show in the vein of Suburgatory and Modern Family. Malin Akerman plays the bombshell third wife of Bradley Whitford, a rich divorcee whose ex-wives are played by Michaela Watkins and the Emmy-ready Marcia Gay Harden, stealing every scene she’s in as a Manchurian Candidate-type mother.

What’s astounding and refreshing about the show is that despite the seemingly broad stereotypes it portrays, none of these women are ever played for caricature. Trophy Wife shows how each woman is a strong wife and mother in her own way, each just having different styles. Instead of continually playing them against each other, like in a bad divorce, the show shows how they all need each other to balance out their strange family unit. Trophy Wife also gives the underused Akerman a chance to finally shine, completely inhabiting the role of a woman struggling with the responsibility of someone else’s family and feeling in over her head.

Although ABC has ordered more scripts of the show, start watching it now before it gets cancelled. Ratings have been shaky, and Trophy Wife needs to find the audience it deserves before ABC loses another good show, just because of a dumb name.