HOPE SPRINGS INFERNAL

Gentle Readers,

Now, class, why do you suppose I titled this post "hope springs infernal"?

Yes, that's right -- because I love the malapropisms on my favorite TV show, Raising Hope (Fox, Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. EST after Glee).

Virginia (Martha Plimpton) said on a recent episode that they never found the limburger baby. hahahahahahahaha

Virginia is the new Mrs. Malaprop.                

I love it!

The premise of Raising Hope is that Jimmy (Lucas Neff) hooked up with a cereal killer (she hated Mikey and Wheaties) and she ended up preggers after their one night stand and Jimmy ended up with the baby after Mommy was executed for murdering Cheerios. Jimmy's parents, Virginia and Burt (Garret Dillahunt), don't want Jimmy to keep Baby Hope, but they soon got on board to help out.

Everybody on the show is a riot, especially Cloris Leachman as Virginia's grandmother. Maw Maw has an occasional lucid moment but can sometimes be found skateboarding or relaxing inside the window of the deli counter of the grocery store where Jimmy has a second job on top of his job working for his dad's lawn service. Maw Maw also likes to rip off her clothes and run off topless from time to time.

Raising Hope was created by Greg Garcia, who created My Name Is Earl, another absolutely nutso show I loved. Earl is in reruns now, or you can get it on DVD if you didn't catch it during the four seasons it was on. Earl (Jason Lee) was a not so nice guy who learned about karma and made up of a list of all the wrongs he had done and set out to fix them so he could get rid of his bad karma. I was sad when the show disappeared. As far as I was concerned, Earl could have gone on fixing items on his list forever.

But if we can't have Earl anymore, at least we can have baby Hope and her family. They put the fun in dysfunctional.

It makes me really happy that this family lives in a house befitting their station -- they don't have some fancy place. Their house is about right for a guy who has a lawn service and a gal who cleans houses. Of course, it's really Maw Maw's house anyway. I love it that Maw Maw raised Virginia because Virginia's mom was no good, but Virginia is a pretty darn good mom and grandma anyway. I love it that Burt loves Jimmy so much that he'll go to all sorts of lengths to keep Jimmy as his buddy. I love it that the family sits down together to eat meals. I love it that they fight like normal families and they make up like normal families and Virginia and Burt are still in love and nobody in the family is terribly bright but they just keep on keepin' on.

My pal LegalMist already recommended this show on December 2, 2010, and I want to second her emotion.

Give Hope a chance. If you're even half as crazy as I am, you will love it.

Infinities of love,

Lola