Oscar Madison (Matthew Perry) is a messy divorced sports broadcaster. His friend Felix Unger (Thomas Lennon) is a mess after getting kicked out by his wife. The two men hasn't been together since Oscar's divorce. Their wives are best friends. Oscar invites the neat-freak Felix to stay. Oscar's friends include his assistant Dani (Yvette Nicole Brown), agent Teddy (Wendell Pierce), Roy, and dim-witted former baseball player Murph (Geoff Stults). Felix finds a fitting connection to the downtrodden Emily (Lindsay Sloane) who has much hotter sister Casey. Oscar falls for single mom neighbor Charlotte (Teri Hatcher).This is old before it started. It is unimaginative. It is mostly flat except Perry and Lennon are able to elevate the material. They are the perfect Oscar and Felix. However, this is nothing more than network TV retread.

I never watch the old "Odd Couple" series as it was before my time yet of late I've caught on to the new CBS series called "The Odd Couple" with Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon. The story is simple they are two friends with likes and dislikes and thoughts and ways as different as daylight and dark! Yet both share a New York city apartment and they become caring house like mates who work the way thru life with different attitudes! Oscar(Matthew Perry)is an outspoken pretty boy type who's more of a ladies man while Felix(Thomas Lennon)is more shy and neurotic and a loner type who likes to do crazy stuff! All of this makes for fun laughs and wit! Plus to add some sugar and spice eye candy is provided in the form of the sexy Teri Hatcher who sparkles as Oscar's girlfriend Charlotte. Overall good funny comedy show to watch that brings laughs and entertains with it's differences.

It was really difficult to impossible to rank this show as no matter how good the actors around Matthew are (Only the excellent Lennon), he just messes it up each and every time. I have no idea what happened to Matthew but it makes me sad and a bit worried as I used to love Perry's charm and unique acting abilities. Matthew delivers his lines monotonically, eyes crazy wide open and using one permanent limited facial expression. Did he have some sort of an accident? Or some seizure he is recuperating from? Something is way off here. Dear god Matthew, what happened man? Yes, we all get older and I did not expect Chandler Bing but if you were attempting to play A brain damaged Chandler...you got it right.

I watched most of season 1 of The Odd Couple and having learned that you need to give a sitcom a bit of time to endear itself to its audience you certainly should be able to come to a conclusion before the first seasons last episode. Watching each weekly episode I just found that the story lines were consistently weak and the content of any humour was completely missing. Mind you I like Matthew Perry who plays Oscar Madison the sportswriter slob. As well, I also admire Wendell Pierce who plays Oscars agent Teddy. (Wendell Pierce is best known for his supporting role as Detective William Bunk Moreland on the multiple Emmy winning crime series The Wire). Thomas Lennon plays the (kind of) straight laced(?) nitpicker clean freak photographer who shares the apartment with his old pal and slob Oscar. His acting credits are over 100 plus in both feature films and TV sitcoms but still he remains a relatively obscure actor. After watching him in The Odd Couple you will come to realize why he will never become a household name discussed at the dinner table or during your families TV trivia quiz.Maybe season 2 will shake it up enough that I may hear something funny from a friend about the series (instead of that irritating and constant laugh track) but I for one am not prepared to waste any more time being disappointed in this humorless TV sitcom. Take a pass.I give it a 3 out of 10 rating