Miss Match is about an endearing but not overwhelmingly competent high school guidance counselor who is enamored with an overwhelmingly incompetent Spanish teacher. This tries to walk a tricky line, getting us involved in and at some level rooting for folks whose presence is destructive to others. And they got Todd Holland to steer this – with his experience on Malcolm in the Middle, he should be a good candidate to pull it off.
But, well, he doesn’t achieve it. With Malcolm, we were only rooting for our stars when they were more victims than victimizer. Otherwise, we were merely being amused by the style of their destructiveness.
(And no, rooting for the leads is not an inherent requirement in a comedy. At best, we’re rooting for one of the titular two-and-a-half men. But that’s a comedy of justice. They generally get what they deserve. On Miss Match, folks win, and we’re apparently supposed to enjoy that. Yes, we recognize it’s wrong on a level of irony, and they know it…. but whatever the intent, it still doesn’t add up to much.)
