In my opinion, the two stars of this show are some of the most capable and entertaining women in television. Allison Janney handles with grace, humor, and intelligence roles that span from The West Wing to Drop Dead Gorgeous, and will always be a face I'm happy to see. Anna Faris is both fearless and brilliant in her courageous departure from type as a "hot blonde," repeatedly defying stereotypes and living up physical comedy. If you haven't seen House Bunny, you have no idea how genius this woman is. No judging or rolling your eyes until you've seen it, people, it's sooo much better and smarter than you think.
In fact, this show has almost an overabundance of talent to squeeze into a half hour--Nathan Corddry and French Stewart are both recognizably brilliant in their forms of comedy, and could even compliment the leading women in interesting and surprising ways.
If only the approach to the characters and storyline didn't look like the worst thing this side of Cavemen (that's right, Geico, we haven't forgiven you yet). The way Mom is being written is a recent trend in CBS sitcoms that I'm starting to resent. I call it the "2 Broke Girls crisis." You take a concept that genuinely could a good, fresh start for a sitcom--two girls living from paycheck to paycheck, or a mom with a troubled past trying to get it right this time with her kids--and suck the soul right out of it.
It's like the amorphous "they" don't understand that in order for these concepts to work, there needs to be some real guts and ugly flaws and moments of failing. But these get brushed off as "too gritty" for comedy, and instead everything is made light of. But that's not really how life works. Funny moments are funny because life's a shitstorm sometimes, and you come to appreciate the reprieve.
These women could handle an honest-to-goodness generational comedy that through humor attacks real issues. It's too bad they probably aren't going to be given the chance.