The most admirable comedies, such as "30 Rock," crackle with cynicism.
Mr. Lachow's goal is admirable, a comedy-drama about two unlikely people -- and particularly unpleasant ones at that -- trying to understand what has gone wrong in their relationship at a crisis point.
If you'll allow the pun, "Enlisted" could have stepped into a minefield of obvious jokes about the military, but it doesn't beat its chest about two ideas it takes very seriously: that service to one's country is admirable and that network comedies should be funny.
"Speechless" (ABC, 8 30 p.m. Wednesday) ABC continues its drive for diversity in single-camera family comedies – no less admirable for being so evidently intentional – with Minnie Driver as the driven mother of teenager Micah Fowler, who has cerebral palsy.
Thus, a third of the way through his novel, Roth kills off its most admirable character, in a scene of comedy as well as tears.
Which is an admirable role to fill, except sanctity and comedy make uneasy bedfellows.
Few of his works, aside from "Peter Pan" and his desert-island comedy of class conflict, "The Admirable Crichton," are remembered now, yet in 1922 he was invested with the Order of Merit, the grandest of British honors.
But the joke about the chauffeur who is wiser than his employer belongs to a period in which other comedies, including JM Barrie's The Admirable Crichton, pointed up the helpless dependency of the rich.
The other constant during those years of emotional turmoil was work, and Schumer threw herself at the standup comedy circuit with a ferocious and admirable ambition.
