Don’t Trust the B— in Apartment 23 review: Trust this, it’s hilarious

There’s always that show every season where you don’t exactly know if it would work or not. I mean, how long are we supposed to ride the concept of this title? Okay, so there’s a girl who’s a total bitch — where do we go with that? So there’s James Van Der Beek who’s basically just there to make (self-aware by the show but not by his character) jokes about his Dawson’s Creek days. How long can that last? And then sometimes, you just have to let the concept go. You just have to watch the show for what it is and see what you find.

And what you find is that it’s hilarious.

For my screeners, I was given the pilot episode, the second episode, and what I believe will be the fourth episode to air. I hear that this is pretty common if the network thinks that an episode later on is stronger than one of the earlier ones. And perhaps, they chose correctly. See, the pilot brings a perfect breeziness about it, whereas the second episode is just way too much, and by the fourth episode, it appears the series has found its footing. It grew into something that I would like to watch week by week, because it’s just fun. More so, it’s funny.

Don’t Trust the B—– in Apartment 23 is the story of small town girl with big brains, June, who moved to New York after receiving a huge job opportunity. But when her workplace goes under, so do her future prospects — until she meets The Bitch in Apartment 23, Chloe: then it goes even further south. I won’t tell you all the tiny details because they’re kind of important for the “TWIST!” of the pilot. But I will say that the pilot itself sets up a better concept going forward. (That is if you have not watched the first two episodes yet, which are available online.) Together with Chloe’s “gay BFF but he’s straight” James Van Der Beek, June navigates the realities of her situation. And, if I haven’t mentioned this before, it’s hilarious.

This is actually quite a high honor for a series coming from me. (Because I’m oh so important, obviously.) This season, I feel like I have just been watching a multitude of comedies that haven’t made me laugh much. HIMYM, Cougar Town, Community, 30 Rock, all of them — while I’m a huge fan of these series and even though I have watched and enjoyed their storytelling this season (at times), I haven’t actually laughed much while watching them this year. But Apartment 23 (sans that second episode… oy vey…) has reminded me that comedies have the primary job of just being funny.

It even caught me off guard. I hadn’t expected the tone of this show to be so immediate (even cartoonish, like a 30 Rock and Cougar Town hybrid; plus when you add the timeline whirlwind element, it feels like HIMYM)… but it completely worked for me. It presented who or what it is from the beginning. And it almost climbs out of the television, trying to grab a laugh from you — which I also very much appreciate.

Once again, if I have not parenthetically said this enough: continue watching past the second episode. Just, please? Because the fourth (?) episode has a scene in which June gains “confidence” that had me rolling for about a minute. I had to pause the episode to laugh… then I rewound it to watch it again… and again.

Look, you’ll either make this a must-watch on your list or you’ll forget about it. Does this make a good fit out of Modern Family? Probably not. It would probably be better with Cougar Town or Happy Endings. But together with it and Revenge (plus the other comedies I hear nothing but good things about), by adding Apartment 23 to its lineup, ABC has crafted a compelling Wednesday night. There’s no other network your eyes should be on.

If nothing else, trust me on this: You will laugh out loud. And truly, that’s what matters when it comes to a comedy.

Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 premieres this Wednesday, April 11th at 9:30pm eastern / 8:30pm central on ABC. But you have probably viewed the first two episodes, made available online and on iTunes. If you did, what do you think so far?