Kat Dennings may have moved on to ABC’s Shifting Gears, but she’s had 2 Broke Girls on the brain of late. This is likely because she’s set to reunite with co-star Beth Behrs when Season 3 of her sitcom hits the TV schedule this winter, but also because the CBS sitcom celebrated its 15th anniversary this week. In a post, though, the actress joked about leaving the series behind with both “PTSD” and that CBS "money." It was funny, but also after seeing some of the commentary, I get it.
I was writing about TV already when 2 Broke Girls premiered back in 2011. It was very popular on CBS. More than 19 million people tuned in for the premiere, and during its first season it made the Top 30 when it came to network programming. It ultimately ran for six seasons before getting cancelled by CBS without being able to wrap its storylines, I might add.
However, critics hated the show while it was on, and they weren’t particularly nice about it through the course of the sitcom’s run. I remember at the time the show’s second season was ramping up, the creator was taken to task by journalists over allegations of stereotyping. Looking into the show again this week, I found critics called the show “sexist, vulgar, racist, and generally offensive,” saying it would try to go edgy but wasn’t well-written enough to get away with it. Others objected to the number of body jokes per episode.
People were not kind about 2 Broke Girls online. Meanwhile, Beth Behrs and Kat Dennings were working long TV hours to bring the laughs to fans who did seemingly enjoy some of Max’s zingers and Caroline figuring out how to live life as a poor person. They come off like they had a good time working together and are still friendly pals, so the show experience wasn’t all bad, and Dennings expressed that in a more candid (and less amusing) anniversary post.
Still, I can’t imagine what it’s like to have to deal with constant criticism when you are on a series for years and know you have fans. Her new show with Tim Allen, Shifting Gears, gets that a little bit, too. Critics were pretty open ahead of its 2025 premiere they think it’s a “lame relic,” but they don’t seem to think it’s patently offensive in the way they did with Dennings’ now-cancelled show.
I personally like that Shifting Gears is joke-joke-joke and has a laugh track. I think some people feel this is a style from the past, just as mockumentaries are starting to go out of fashion, as well. (S/O to Abbott Elementary for keeping that format alive.) Personally, I think there’s room for a wide breadth of content on television, and I think this art form is not as easy to get right as people like to act like. Just ask the Big Bang Theory’s Mayim Bialik.
