MANILA, Philippines - Jane Lynch’s lanky frame and wolfish grin are so ubiquitous on screen that it’s easy to forget that she hasn’t had her own TV show. That deficit is corrected Thursday night when CBS presents Angel From Hell, a sitcom in which she plays Amy, a guardian angel who’s essentially a well-meaning, pathologically needy stalker with a drinking problem and a tendency to over share.
The series, created by Tad Quill (Bent), dials down Lynch’s caustic comic persona a notch or two — Amy is part-mean Sue Sylvester from Glee, part-friendly Clarence from It’s a Wonderful Life. Quill is trying for something that’s funny in the Bill Lawrence adult-suburban-hipster mode (he and Lawrence worked together in Scrubs and Spin City) and also heartfelt, with a message about self-actualization and taking control of our life. Lynch negotiates this divide effortlessly — she’s often hilarious and always engaging — but the show around her occasionally bogs down in its own mushiness.
Amy is the lifelong guardian of Allison (Maggie Lawson), an uptight dermatologist to whom she reveals herself as the show begins. Quill has cited Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie as his models for Angel From Hell, but the emphasis is less on magic than on female buddy comedy. Train wreck Amy and overly organized Allison are an Id-and-superego pairing whose roots stretch back as far as Rhoda Morgenstern and Mary Richardson of The Mary Tyler Moore Show (or as close as Max and Caroline in 2 Broke Girls).
Allison is not convinced with Amy’s divinity, but there’s evidence that Amy is not just a nut job, including her uncanny and metaphorical ability to catch an object thrown at her. Amy makes her appearance just in time to save Allison from a major life mistake involving an unemployed boyfriend, who, as he exits, denounces Allison for always working and being too intense.
We understand that the boyfriend’s indictment is unfair — Allison is supporting him, after all — but then the show turns around and indicts her for the very same thing. Amy’s project, through two episodes, is to loosen Allison up, to get her to work less, do some daytime drinking and engage in some casual sex. It’s the latest wrinkle on a woman’s inability to have it all — try too hard and a guardian angel will come down and make jokes at your expense until you agree to that 2 p.m. margarita.