By Jae-Ha Kim
Amazon.com
January 13, 2009
In the first season of ‘Til Death, a good chunk of the episodes centered on the grizzled married couple eying their affectionate newlywed neighbors with both jealousy and pity. In the followup year, Eddie and Joy Stark (Brad Garrett, Joely Fisher) have accepted Jeff and Steph Woodcock (Eddie Kaye Thomas, Kat Foster) not only as their neighbors, but also as friends (though sometimes begrudgingly).
That doesn’t mean that the ugly green monster doesn’t rear its ugly head on occasion. The Starks already feel left out when they are excluded from a neighbor’s funeral. But when they learn that the Woodcocks have been asked to participate in various roles honoring the deceased, they can’t help but feel competitive about wanting to show their grief.
As Eddie and Joy, Garrett and Fisher carry on the tradition of schlubby husbands married to women much hotter than them (According to Jim, The King of Queens and Everybody Loves Raymond). The chemistry between the two is completely believable–the Starks have a comfortable relationship where PDAs aren’t a necessity. And Garrett is particularly good at physical comedy (watch for the scenes where he plays basketball and partakes in yoga). Thomas and Foster make a cute couple, but their relationship comes off as a little more forced.
Both sets of couples are in rare form, though, when they do their own version of “swinging.” All 18 episodes–which originally aired during the 2007-2008 television season–are included in this two-disc box set. Some plot lines don’t work, such as when a husband keeps a deli as a secret from his wife. But others dealing with the banalities of everyday married life hit home, even though they’re played for laughs.
