Happy Endings: The Complete First Season

After several years as Jack Bauer's daughter on 24, Elisha Cuthbert seems like an unlikely casting choice for a sitcom, but this ABC series was able to find an audience by freshening up the Friends formula. The story begins with Alex (Cuthbert), who runs a Chicago boutique, leaving her less ambitious fiancé, Dave (Zachary Knighton), at the altar because she isn't ready for marriage. But they continue to hang out, having been together for 10 years. The rest of the gang includes Alex's tightly wound sister, Jane (Eliza Coupe), and Jane's more laidback husband, Brad (Damon Wayans Jr.); plus two singles, Max (Adam Pally) and Penny (Casey Wilson). After the wedding fiasco, Dave moves in with Max, a gay slacker, and resumes life as a bachelor. Unfortunately, the pilot is a mess, and the characters come across as shallow and hypocritical (there's nothing funny, for instance, about the way everyone makes fun of Max's weight—and outside of Hollywood's stringent standards, he's hardly fat). But during subsequent segments, in which Alex looks for a roommate and Dave dates again, the crew becomes more likable, while also finding creative ways to show their support (like the plan Brad and Max hatch to get Penny's manipulative assistant to quit). Because Happy Endings began as a midseason replacement, this set consists of only 13 episodes, aired in 2011. DVD extras include deleted scenes, outtakes, and an irreverent interview with Pally and Wilson. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)