NEW SHOW: Trophy Wife: Fitting Together

What's this? An eleventh hour addition? Yep! While Trophy Wife didn't really blip on my radar all summer (in fact, I called the premise nothing more than a bad movie), I recently found out that one of the kids (Albert Tsai, who plays Bert) on the series lives around my area AND was "discovered" after acting in a colleague's play. So, I had to give the comedy a chance. I actually liked it much more than I was anticipating, and believe that the series could actually have a chance this season, although it may walk a fine line between being too Modern Family or The New Normal, as depicting a non-American-Dream family can be risky. It will undoubtedly take some time, but Kate could definitely fit in with this piecemeal family.

(ABC/Craig Sjodin)

Trophy Wife "Pilot" (S01E01): Kate went from singing karaoke with BFF Meg to married to Pete and being a stepmother to his three children (with two different ex-wives) in just a year. [do Kate OR Meg have any type of career?] There's surgeon Diane Buckley with teenage twins Warren and Hillary, and there's Jackie, with whom Peter adopted Ben from China. Because of the complicated family dynamics, Kate could initially only see lawyer Pete Tuesdays, Thursdays, and every other weekend, but they worked it out.

Kate is trying to handle parenting responsibilities, but Diane, in particular, doesn't take her seriously. For instance, when Pete can't make an emergency parent-teacher conference, Kate and Diane go, Diane thinks that Kate is the source of Warren's inappropriate writing about Greek gods. [ha! also, Warren reminds me of what Friends' Ross might be as a kid.] Kate later discovers that Warren just has a crush on one of Hillary's friends, but before that revelation, Diane gets upset at Kate for being drunk. See, Kate had told the teens a story from her own youth that involved sneaking vodka into a concert in a water bottle. [why she'd pass on this trick, I don't know.] Hillary immediately tries this, and Kate catches her. [where did she get the vodka with which to do this?] Trying to bond with her stepdaughter, Kate keeps the incident from Diane, but has to chug the vodka when Warren is thirsty for water. [well, soda. but a mother in the medical field isn't letting Warren have cola willy-nilly.] It isn't until Diane threatens to try for full custody that Hillary admits to why Kate is drunk, getting herself grounded in the process. This frees up Warren to attend a concert with Hillary's friend. [not sure why the friend agrees to take Warren over another friend.]

It might not be long until Jackie is also upset with Kate, as Kate farmed out transporting Bert to orchestra practice so she could be at Warren's school, but Meg detoured to a bar and Bert missed his saxophone audition for a solo part. [not a big fan of Meg.] Although, on the other hand, Jackie doesn't seem to have it all together, either. When Bert's hamster at her house dies, she tries to swap it with the one at Pete's house so he'd be the one to explain what happened. [this was pretty funny!] Instead, Pete catches her, they accidentally kill the other one, and they make a mad rush to the pet store in search of more hamsters. Jackie pulling out a dead hamster from her purse (combined with a joke about how Pete also killed one of the critters) stops them from being able to buy more. [hahaha!] When they can't find twin hamsters at any other store, they resort to buying Bert a puppy to avoid telling him about the dead hamsters. [and it seems like they're just going to pretend they got lost.]