'Angel From Hell': A Supernatural Showcase For Jane Lynch
It’s pretty simple, really: If you like Jane Lynch, you’ll like Angel From Hell. In the new sitcom premiering tonight on CBS, Lynch plays Amy, who declares herself the guardian angel of Allison (Maggie Lawson), a dermatologist engaged to be married. Wisecracking and loose-limbed — it may have something to do with swilling crème de menthe in the daytime hours — Amy wants the tightly-wound Allison to relax and enjoy life more… and maybe find a guy who doesn’t have a roving eye, as her fiancé seems to.
The series is a showcase for Lynch, who seems to be having a ball playing a so-called “crazy lady” with seemingly-supernatural powers. Either that, or her Amy is a very adroit psycho stalker, a notion that is played for laughs early on in the two episodes I’ve watched.
The supporting cast is strong. In addition to Lawson, who’s charming in a role that requires her to be baffled or irritated much of the time, Kyle Bornheimer, who has been TV-omnipresent in short-lived shows like Family Tools, Perfect Couples, Romantically Challenged, and Worst Week, is Allison’s affable brother, and comedian-actor Kevin Pollak is nicely abrasive as her father.
Related: ‘Angel From Hell’: Star Jane Lynch and Creator Tad Quill Preview Their Heavenly New Comedy
Angel was created by Tad Quill, who was also behind Bent, the good 2012 sitcom that should have given Amanda Peet and David Walton a longer time together on TV. In interviews, Quill has compared Angel to old supernatural sitcoms such as Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, but the oldie it really resembles is My Favorite Martian, the 1963-66 show starring Ray Walston as an impish alien who tried to similarly loosen up Bill Bixby’s uptight character.
As I said at the start, your fondness for Angel From Hell will depend upon your ongoing appetite for Lynch, who delivers the majority of the show’s punchlines. Going forward, the show needs to invent creative excuses to give Allison and her family different ways to interact with Lynch’s Amy for this to be more than a one-woman show.
Angel From Hell airs Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. on CBS.
