"Annaleigh Ashford doesn't deliver her B Positive dialogue so much as she sings it, turning moments of the new CBS sitcom into almost a multi-cam musical focused on Adelaide from Guys and Dolls or some archetypal equivalent," says Daniel Fienberg of the Lorre-produced organ-donor comedy co-starring Thomas Middleditch created by Mom writer Marco Pennette. "This is only a good thing, because Ashford is, after all, a Tony-winning musical theater star and her gifts with melodic phrasing border on unparalleled (and, as any viewer of Showtime's Masters of Sex knows, Ashford is an adroit dramatic actress as well). In the two episodes of B Positive sent to critics, I got multiple laughs out of Ashford's delivery of lines from Marco Pennette's scripts, which, while not conspicuous groaners, probably wouldn't have been funny under neutral circumstances. This is a workable formula for an above-average broadcast multi-cam — basically co-creator Chuck Lorre's bread and butter — as B Positive combines inoffensive writing with a cast of impressive depth, giving this bittersweet sitcom room to grow its world in a variety of directions, several of which have real potential." Fienberg adds: "So what you have in the first episode is a set-up for a reboot of The Odd Couple or possibly Lorre's own Dharma & Greg, pairing uptight and free-spirited protagonists to comic effect. But B Positive almost immediately pivots from star-driven two-hander to backdoor ensemble comedy, something more like Lorre's Mom."
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TOPICS: B Positive, CBS, Annaleigh Ashford, Chuck Lorre, Marco Pennette, Thomas Middleditch