Tucker and Dale vs Evil is a comedy based on tropes of the horror genre about 2 rednecks, Tucker (Tudyk; Serenity) and Dale (Labine; A Good Old Fashioned Orgy), who are headed to their “fixer-upper” of a cabin in the woods that they’ve just purchased. Through a series of miscommunications and snap judgements a group of college kids in the same woods mistake them for backwoods killers.
A Good Old Fashioned Orgy is about a group of friends who are entering their 30′s who have been friends since high school. During the summer they head out to one of the group’s (Sudeikis; Hall Pass) parents house in the Hamptons and throw massive themed parties. They learn though that the house is up for sale and this will be their last summer to party like this before losing the house and also having life tear the group apart. It’s decided that the final party will just be the core group and will be an orgy.
Mad Love is about a lawyer (Biggs; American Pie) who meets the love of his life (Chalke; Scrubs). While he’s busy wooing her and furthering their relationship his best friend (Labine; Reaper) and her best friend (Greer; Miss Guided) are busy despising each other. And that is literally the entire premise of the show.
So you have a show with a barely there premise that’s been done to death. But the powers that be did fill this up with a pretty great comedic cast. Or at least made a good attempt at it. Tyler Labine is good in Mad Love, but he’s essentially playing his Reaper character. Jason Biggs just doesn’t work at all. His performance is especially pale when surrounded by better actors, or in this case, actresses. It’s the female leads that really make this show. Judy Greer and Sarah Chalke are both really strong actresses and they really seem to be trying to make this work. Of course there is only so much that could be done with a show like this.
CBS is trying to use this to compliment How I Met Your Mother, having it follow it, using HIMYM‘s long time director Pamela Fryman, and even Sarah Chalke was a guest star in many episodes of that show. And watching the pilot of Mad Love, it feels like it’s trying to be How I Met Your Mother. The problem is it’s not. And the show really just doesn’t work.
I recommend skipping this. But if you need to it currently airs Mondays at 8:30 on CBS.