Airs: Tuesdays at 9:30/8:30c starting October 17th on ABC

TV show equation:  Suburgatory =   Clarissa Explains It All-esque female protaganist   +   Clueless reunions   x   Desperate Housewives setting (very possibly the same exact set)   –   all the sexy times

Premise in a Sentence: Snarky NY teen is ripped from the big city by her dad to live in the suburbs.

Let’s get this out of the way right now.  I’m not going to sit here at my laptop and tell you that Suburgatory needs to be your new favorite show.  It’s not going to happen.  My relationship with this during it’s first season was as follows: I watched the pilot, enjoyed it, set a season pass on Tivo, watched a few episodes on days spent absently scrolling through my list of recorded shows, enjoyed those episodes, then proceeded to forget how much I enjoyed said episodes.  It has only been during these summer months of reruns that Suburgatory and formed a relationship that is past that awkward “acquaintances” phase.

I could go on about how you should watch this show for the sweet father-daughter relationship between Jane Levy’s Tessa and Jeremy Sisto’s George, or for the well-fleshed out character of Tessa, or for the emerging love triangles and sexual tension, or for the entertaining commentary on our present image-obsessed society.  But really, I watch for the awesome cast.  This show is really firing on cylinders.

You’ve got Chris Parnell (Yo, what up, Parns?!) and Ana Gasteyer as the cookie-cutter neighbors who aren’t very cookie-cutter because they are Chris Parnell and Ana Gasteyer, the aforementioned Jeremy Sisto or he of Elton fame (don’t you know who his father is?),  the leaf on the wind Alan Tudyk (RIP Wash) as George’s bottle-bronzed friend who convinced him to move to the suburbs, and the always funny and endearing Cheryl Hines as the newly divorced Dallas, who may have a little thing for George.  On top of that, all of the new blood is great, too.

Basically, for me Suburgatory is like a mug of hot chocolate.  Do I need that hot chocolate to survive?  No, but it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, it’s enjoyable, and it’s made even better by the all the marshmallows floating around in there.  The cast members are the marshmallows in this scenario.  So, it’s not a perfect metaphor, but you get the point.

What do you think?  Are you going check it out?  Do you already love it?  Let us know!

– Ellen