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CBS‘ So Help Me Todd, perhaps better thought of as Take Your Hot Son to Work, is the story of a private investigator forced to investigate the most private thing of all — his relationship with his mother.
When we meet Skylar Astin‘s titular sleuth in Thursday’s premiere, he’s busting a woman in the middle of a grocery store for collecting disability despite having healed from an injury she suffered while working at an airport. The sight of her children is too much for Todd to handle, so he agrees to delete his proof if she promises to go back to work. I’m no cardiologist, but I reckon our boy Todd has a heart of gold.
Todd’s mother’s heart, on the other hand, is very much of the stone variety. Played to uptight perfection by Marcia Gay Harden, Margaret never misses a chance to remind her son how displeased she is with his life choices, particularly the ones that got him stripped of his private investigator license. (Something about a crooked mentor who tricked Todd into getting charged with wire tapping and forgery? Honestly, there was a lot of backstory squeezed into this first hour.)
In addition to being a high-powered attorney, Margaret is also a Mom with a capital M. She accidentally calls her kids on FaceTime, she mixes up celebrities’ names, and she specifically asks people to send e-mails to her phone — even though, as Todd can’t resist pointing out, you don’t have to tell someone where to send an e-mail. You can access it from pretty much anywhere.
Anyway, these polar opposite humans are suddenly forced to spend a lot more time together when Margaret’s husband Harry goes missing, immediately sending Todd back into P.I. mode. Using every tool in his arsenal (mostly social media stalking), Todd eventually catches Harry on a flight to Iceland. He isn’t dying of Parkinson’s, as he led Margaret to believe — he just doesn’t want to be with her anymore. He says she’s too critical, and she doesn’t let him be himself, a pair of grievances Todd is all too familiar with.
But Todd doesn’t merely track down Margaret’s husband in this first hour. He also assists her with a murder trial, one she eventually wins by forcing the defendant’s mother to out herself as the real killer. It’s one of those extremely on-the-nose situations where the outcome of a case also teaches the lawyer an important life lesson, but this show is cute, so we’ll allow it.
Your thoughts on So Help Me Todd thus far? Weigh in via our polls below, then drop a comment with your full review.
This show has such potential, loved the chemistry with characters and I think it’s a keeper! I’m in for the long haul on this one =)
I feel like the show is going to delve deeply into the private lives of the other siblings in a way that shows them to be very unhappy. I don’t want to see that. Ditto have the obvious love interest be engaged. If my fiance were making eyes at an ex like she was I’d get my ring back immediately and she would be leaving our shared living space (while continuing to pay her half of the rent/lease/mortgage for 2+ years). Yikes.
I know that it will be hard writing wise, but this show needs to focus on cases of the week with very few long-term mysteries.
You r a downer!! What’s wrong with developing the characters. Also we need to discover how the mom became so bossy. Was husband that died made mother do all the work or is she had problems in her own life that made the way she is or is she just a bitcby person. The characters need to develop.
That is great. I’m all for exploring the mom and Todd. But I have no interest in seeing the siblings get sadder, then blow up their lives, then rebuild those lives.
CBS has greatly improved its Thursday lineup. Cutting its sitcoms down to its two funniest shows and adding this promising new show was the right move. Now a out to cap the night with the return of Catherine Willows. I like it!
We couldn’t get past the first 15 minutes.
I forced myself. I’m hoping it will settle down.
I liked it. very fun and light hearted. I hope it has a good run
I don’t know if I’ll keep watching. My main reason for even checking it out at all is because Andrea Brooks was playing the woman that was on trial. And since this is apparently her only episode, I’m not that interested. I only liked Todd & Marcia Gay Harden’s character.
I really wish it was still Geena Davis.
Same! The whole time I was watching I was just thinking this could’ve and should’ve been Geena Davis. I actually could Marcia Gay Harding More annoying than I think they intended the character to be
I would have loved to have Geena back on TV… but Marcia will absolutely own this role.
This was way more fun than I expected. I keep watching for at least few more eps to see where its going
It was OK. I’m hoping it will improve over the next several episodes. I love both actors.
I love Marcia Gay Harden and Skylar Astin, but I did not love this…I’m sticking it out for a few episodes, but it had better greatly improve, because this was too harried and odd for me to enjoy it…I’m not optimistic.
They gotta stop with the hacky “old person is absolutely clueless about anything more advanced than a rotary telephone” cliche. “Tock Tock”? Next they’ll have her asking about the “wiffy.” (Remember James Brolin in “Life in Pieces”?)
It’s just cheap, and it’s been done so much it’s completely devalued currency.
This, especially since she’s supposed to be a successful and competent professional. Tech has been around and really entrenched in a lot of professions for a long time,
Incredibly fair points. That said, the senior partners of successful law firms tend to be incredibly clueless about tech. Lawyers in particular have been very wary of social media (we’ve seen it ruin lives, and more importantly, destroy cases). A successful, hyper career focused lawyer like this, might be very ignorant of popular culture and social media. A problem with senior partners is akin to the “emperor has no clothes.” People like that are like unto a God within the confines of their world, with no underlings willing to point out weaknesses. That can be career suicide. People like that tend to disregard anything they consider a weakness, so it can get out of hand, quickly. She knows how to use her phone well enough. She gets the HARDWARE aspects of tech, but she is a little slow WRT the SOFTWARE. A person (and as a lawyer I’ve seen that male Sr Partners are even worse about falling behind modern tech and pop culture) in that industry, at that high position, is very believable to be behind the curve in these areas. A doctor would be more current, and other professions still more current. For Sr Partners, there is no value in social media, and they’ve stopped consuming pop culture on a massive scale years ago.
What the Senior Partners have is connections!!! With a phone call/Text they can make things happen. It is not necessary for them to be up on the hip tech/lingo. BUT it is necessary for them to value what the younger generations bring. The best people use all their assets available and understand and appreciate what those ‘assets’ bring. As long as they feel valued from above, the senior partners don’t have to be fully tech savvy. Hire good people to do that and respect and reward their value, even if it means they leave and become the competition.
Smart Sr Partners surround themselves with folks who have knowledge that they lack. And the mom seems like that. She knows what she doesn’t know and doesn’t have a problem “outsourcing” tasks that require that knowledge.
I’ll stick with it.
Really liked it right from the beginning, good pace and great casting. Love Marcia Gay Harden and Skylar Astin’s interaction.
Stop with the Hallmark style background music. It makes watching it cringe-worthy.
Absolutely loved this show wish I could binge a whole season right now
Cute, funny, clever. Not too heavy. A good fit after Sheldon and Ghosts. I’ll probably stick with CBS on Thursdays and watch Grey’s on Hulu.
I have to admit this turned out better than I anticipated based on the first 10 minutes. Mom is a royal pain in the posterior and son needs to grow up a bit.
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However, after watching the entire thing, I think that there is a huge backstory with Mom and son is slowly starting to realize that things aren’t quite what he wants to think they are.
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If they can get beyond the chronically outdated old person dealing with tech garbage and find a way for everyone to grow a bit, this one might have a chance.
I’m pleasantly surprised because I’m not a fan of MGH, but Skylar makes up for that. I’m in.
While there is nothing groundbreaking here, as long as the stories/cases are interesting this will move along nicely. Lots of secondary family plots and a relationship plot, Check. Well defined characters and solid performances, Check. Good pacing and clear show tonality, Check. Just a fun show to watch without a lot of brain work, Check. I’ll watch.
Needs to be aired on any night but Thursday (or Wednesday or Tuesday) competition what with The Law & Order Universe on NBC & One Station 19 & Gray’s Anatomy on Thursdays & The Chicago One Universe & The Conners, The Goldbergs & Abbot Elementry on Wednesdays the competition is too tough (to be honest CBS should just air a station break sign on Wednesdays & be done with it) & they already have their one & only winning combination on Tuesdays with the FBI’S. So maybe a Sunday, a Friday or a Monday would be good. Maybe on Friday they could renew Macgyver followed by So Help Me Todd & then Blue Bloods. SWAT & that Fire show thingy could go to Paramount+)Mondays they could air after the original NCIS (put Hawaii on Paramount+ if you need to have it at all that is) or on Sundays Choose your timeslot& again the loser goes to Paramount+. Sounds like a workable plan.
Gave it a shot, but it wasn’t interesting enough for me to get invested past the pilot.
What a lovely show, nice light fare with an easy going Castle vibe to it. Can see him and ex getting reacquainted, even though she’s recently engaged. Can’t wait for next week.
Skylar Astin is a great actor and pairing him with Marcia Gay Harden is just TV magic.
I loved Geena Davis but I can’t see Todd’s mom played by any other actress. Obviously Geena would’ve brought something else to the role but MGH is just so great! I’m looking forward to meeting Lawrence at some point too. Maybe Michael Urie??
I really like both Astin and Harden but I thought this was a combination of overacting, underacting, odd supporting casting and weak writing. I hope it gets better.
I absolutely love it! Fast, furious, insightful and funny. Exactly what I’ve been looking for to replace Gilmore Girls.
The magnificent MGH & Snarky SA are perfect foils for a Boomer vs Millennial throwdown.
I love this show and I’m going to tell everybody I know to watch it.
I like Marcia Gay Harden. She was great as an FBI agent in Law & Order SVU a few seasons ago. However, this show didnt really excite me. I will watch another episode, just in case.
Bull was a better show
I liked it but they need to have humor without them becoming caricatures.
I’d prefer they concentrate on the 2 lead characters and not the family members. I noticed they felt compelled to include a gay family member. Unnecessary in every show.