I’ll admit to being inordinately happy when Outsourced was cancelled last May. Aside from all of the show’s flat-out racist humor, I didn’t like any of its characters, and I had developed such a strong allegiance to Community that any other show threatening its place on NBC’s schedule immediately earned my ire. When Whitney got on the air, I was prepared to hate it on similar grounds—not just the derivative, recycled sitcom humor. But my living room wasn’t silent while watching this season (and most likely series) finale, and it wasn’t during the previous handful of episodes either. I laughed a fair amount, because Whitney managed to cultivate a bit of a perspective, albeit a rather tone-deaf and unpopular one. For better or worse, I’m sad that neither Whitney nor Are You There, Chelsea? brought NBC the big ratings other networks scored this season with other female-led comedies.
Since the last time The A.V. Club covered Whitney, the show has moved quickly, so let’s catch up on everything that’s happened. Lily and Neal argued over a prenup, split before their wedding, then Neal turned out to be gay, or bisexual—really, Maulik Pancholy is still playing Jonathan from 30 Rock—and they moved back in together as friends… or something. Mark developed feelings for Roxanne, because otherwise those two characters wouldn’t have much to do other than make the same parroted comments that the other four characters already spout out ad nauseum. Alex came home drunk from a party at a strip club and proposed to Whitney, and then after the first half of the finale last week, he proposed while sober, in the strip club, and Whitney accepted. It’s a pretty rushed back half of the season, but the cast and crew had to see the writing on the wall, and this wraps things up in a reasonable way.
That proposal moment between Whitney and Alex was heartfelt but completely unearned, and the tacked-on audience reaction was especially hokey. I had a pretty good idea what to expect from this, considering just about the only thing smartly drawn about Alex and Whitney outside of tired sitcom clichés is how poorly they fit into the idea of a married couple. Plans for an extremely hasty next-day wedding lead to City Hall (hey there, Nicole Sullivan), the DMV, a visit with Whitney’s father (nice to see you again, Peter Gallagher), and after another nice beat where Alex gives Whitney an engagement ring, the emergency room. The conclusion—after a nice exchange where Whitney calls Alex out for listening to the universe after two days instead of her for something like three years—is that they don’t need to actually be married to be committed. If the episode had ended there, I’d be fine, but the trip to the tattoo parlor was yet another instance of a bus driving by and splashing a mud puddle all over the place. Sure, it sort of fits the characters to get matching “I Do” tattoos on their ribs, but that calm final moment to the incomplete Alex/Whitney arc can’t overshadow the shortcomings of the entire season.
I keep feeling the need to apologize for liking aspects of Whitney when I really shouldn’t. I don’t mind Whitney Cummings, I genuinely like Chris D’Elia and (fellow Northwestern graduate) Maulik Pancholy, and as I said, I found more to laugh at in the little quips than I initially expected to. The broad DMV humor and “guys just don’t listen” angle is so base that it rarely garners a reaction anymore, but whereas Are You There, Chelsea? is content to completely brush the male perspective off the table, Whitney at least includes the same skewed and brusque attitude from Alex, Mark, and Neal. It even handled the issue of Neal and Lily splitting up, and Neal’s sexual confusion, with surprising maturity. That may be arranging deck chairs on the Titanic, but there is some value to looking at what sitcoms with female leads failed in the unusually crowded lineup this past year.