With a title like Don’t Trust the B**** in Apartment 23, you just know this is one you can’t watch with your mom.
But if you and mother can look past what the “B” stands for, you will realise it just a harmless, yet hilarious sitcom. The title is nothing but an attempt to grab your attention and once you bite, then you’re hooked.
On the show we meet June (Dreama Walker, and no, I didn’t make that up), who is excited about leaving behind her Indiana roots for a dream job in the Big Apple.
She has been offered a cool post at a mortgage firm that comes with a spacious flat. But, June doesn’t even get to live her dream as the firm is shut down upon her arrival because of allegations of criminal activities on the part of the owner.
Stranded, she is forced to move in with a stranger, Chloe (Krysten Ritter), who is the “B” in apartment 23 whom you shouldn’t trust. While playing the Good Samaritan to June, Chloe has other ideas as she’s made conning people her career. However, June catches on and surprisingly they then manage to become friends.
The interesting thing about this show is how June’s story is written in such a way that it keeps you on the edge of your seat. You are happy for her when she gets her new job, but saddened when she loses it. It now becomes an emotional roller-coaster ride on your part as the sitcom progresses because you wish her the best. It is almost as if it’s your own story. We have all had to go to the “big city” and the last thing you need is for things not to work out.
There are few other sitcoms that use the approach where the viewer is presented with the characters in what could be a perfect world, but something is missing. Take All of Us, for example, which features Duane Martin and Lisa Raye McCoy-Missick.
They portray a divorced couple trying to co-exist for the sake of their son. However, the way it is scripted shows that the two are obviously still in love even though they are in denial. So the burden becomes yours as the viewer to hope and pray that they get back together. But then again, if they do, the show will have to come to an end.
It is just like 2 Broke Girls, which is based on the premise that two waitresses need to raise enough money to open their own cupcake shop and kiss poverty goodbye. So each episode sees them raise (or lose) some money for the shop fund. The moment they have enough moolah the show ends.
So as long as June is not working at a well-paying job, she will have to shack up with Chloe and we will see more reasons why people shouldn’t trust the “B” from Apartment 23.
• Don’t Trust The B**** In Apartment 23 starts December 7 at 7pm on Vuzu (DStv channel 116).