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Just finished watching the first two episodes of this new Fox sitcom. The title character is a doctor who is married and the father of two teenagers who has voluntarily taken over the parenting duties at home, voluntary and with a sledgehammer approach since his wife has decided to go to law school. So far, in terms of storytelling, there's nothing groundbreaking here, but there is one thing that is making this show worth watching for me and that is the casting of the title character. Christopher Meloni, who spent 12 years playing the severely intense Detective Elliott Stabler on Law & Order SVU, finds a welcome change of place playing the dad in a family sitcom, but what makes the character so much fun to watch is that Meloni plays the character with the exact same intensity with which he played Elliott Stabler....Meloni plays this character with a straight face and it makes the character even funnier than intended. The other interesting thing going on here is that Jack's focus seems to be a lot more on his semi-nuerotic son than his nubile, young daughter. Jack took the news of his wife discovering his daughter half naked in her bedroom with her boyfriend a lot better than he did learning that his son stole a stack of porno mags from some homeless guys. Rachael Harris is fine as Meloni's wife though I really don't buy them as a couple yet and Tyler Foden is amusing as one of Meloni's son's best buddies, but it is the somewhat edgy writing and the presence of Christopher Meloni that makes this one worth checking out.
