I really, really didn’t expect to like Apartment 23. I’m not a big fan of sitcoms in general, and I really had my sights set on 2 Broke Girls. Me liking that show? Totally not to be, but 23 is totally not for me (and I promise I will not rhyme again in this entire post). It has quirk (but not too much), a perfectly cast pair of female leads … and James Van Der Beek playing himself (the same way Neil Patrick Harris played himself in the White Castle movies). Unfortunately, Apartment 23 was somehow tossed on the midseason replacement pile, right alongside NBC’s Smash and ABC’s Scandal, two of my other favorite new shows.

Dreama Walker (The Good Wife, Gossip Girl) plays June, a small town girl fresh off the boat, who comes to New York City to live the American Dream. Incredibly nice … and naive … but whip smart, and learns the hard lessons quick. When her fancy job and corporate apartment go down the drains, she’s forced to find other living options quick. At first glance, Krysten Ritter‘s (Gravity, Veronica Mars) Chloe seems like the perfect roommate; she is, however, very far from perfect. She lies, cheats, steals, cons, seduces, and manipulates her way through life … But in the Barney Stinson mold, not in the “that guy from Lonestar” mold.

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It feels like both Walker and Ritter have been playing these roles for years; they inhabit the characters masterfully. I’m also a big fan of the way this show is funny; there are nearly as many blink-and-you’ll-miss-it subtle site gags as there are overt set pieces (The neighbor spilling his coffee was right there on the line of over the top, but toed that particular line perfectly).

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