INSTANT MOM

**1/2 (out of ****)

Maybe I’m getting tired. Maybe you can only come up with so many synonyms for “television garbage” before you want to just give up altogether. Instant Mom, Nick at Nite’s newest attempt to produce new versions of the old stuff they show, wasn’t the worst thing I watched this season. There, I said it.

Instant Mom suffers from a severe lack of creativity, while shows like Sean Saves the World suffer from a severe lack of originality, or at least its attempts at originality fail. These might seem like the same thing, or at least similarly offensive. But at no point does Instant Mom, or its creators, even attempt to give us anything other than a Nick at Nite show. This is just a way to add another half hour to their programming without making it feel like there’s a bump in the road. In addition to that, they don’t have to pay syndication fees. In fact, they might even receive them someday. This isn’t a foolproof recipe for success – this is the network that brought us The Exes. But I would be remiss if I just automatically lumped this in with Sean Saves the World, the clear red-headed gaychild of the Fallocaust.

Tia and/or Tamera stars as Instant Mom, a reformed party girl who recently married up, becoming the Every-Other-Weekend Mom to her new husband’s three kids. Wouldn’t you know it, the kid’s mom died or some shit, and now INSTANTLY she’s a full time mom. Hopefully this will all be explained in the opening credits of future episodes, a trend that I never thought I would miss, and don’t. Tia and/or Tamera is charming enough, and the kids do the right amount of scene stealing, particular the middle one. The mugging he does with his eyes alone is enough to make a superstar. Instant Mom won’t find any end-of-the-year Top Ten Lists, but if you’re high, and have watched Nick at Nite for 8 hours straight, there’s no reason to let Instant Mom break your streak.

– Ryan Haley