Krysten Ritter’s been poised on the verge of stardom for a few years now, ever since a fantastic turn as Jesse Pinkman’s doomed girlfriend Jane Margolis on the second season of “Breaking Bad.” But she’s always seemed a little too sharp-edged for Hollywood to know what to do with, hence the endless roles as the quirky/sarcastic friend in things like “She’s Out of My League.” “What Happens in Vegas” and “Confessions of a Shopaholic.”
Ritter was the star of the Eric Schaeffer dramedy “Gravity,” which ran for a season on Starz and was justifiably little-watched. “Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23″ is her bid for something bigger, and while it’s premiering on ABC on Wednesday, April 11, the network’s put the pilot episode up early on Hulu to promote the show:
On the basis of the episode above, “Don’t Trust the B” needs to be either naughtier and stranger to attract a young following or broader and goofier to attract a more mainstream one. The show sets up an unlikely friendship between the naive Indiana transplant June (Dreama Walker) and her new roomie Chloe (Ritter), a jaded New York hipster who schemes to have new tenants move into her apartment and then chases them away with obnoxious behavior and keeps their money.
As the title suggests (within the episode characters do actually say “bitch,” but you feel like they’re fighting not to drop their voices on the word like children are around), the show’s a little meek despite the supposedly wild urban world in which it’s set.
“Don’t Trust the B” does have one genuinely odd thing going for it, which is that James Van Der Beek is one of the regulars and is playing a douchebag version of himself, still getting laid and getting odd jobs due to his “Dawson’s Creek” fame. It’s a joke that’s easy to run out — consider Jennifer Grey in “It’s Like, You Know…” — but the show plays it straight enough to be amusing in this episode, at least.
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