The Class

CBS, somewhat surprisingly, has ordered more episodes of the ensemble comedy The Class. This comes after both mediocre ratings and a bevy of lukewarm reviews. They haven't ordered a full season just yet, however. TVSquad has all the details. I'm torn on The Class, in theory. I've only seen the pilot and it showcased some good potential, but not enough for me to put it on my permanent viewing schedule. The Class was created by David Crane (“Friends”) and Jeffrey Klarik (“Mad About You”) so it's not like the show lacks pedigree. In fact, we interviewed Crane and Klarik recently, and, besides being quite amiable, they were very confident in CBS's confidence in them. The ordering of more episodes speaks to that.
The Class is an experiment, really. Can you have a half-hour ensemble comedy with eight main characters? The jury is still out. Not only does The Class have eight featured players, those characters don't even reside in a common area. The result is what feels like a series of comedy vignettes, little scenes disassociated with each other. It would take seasons to create meaningful relationships between each and every character. The ordering of more episodes also comes with it a pledge to streamline the show, focusing on fewer characters. Again, this is a good decision. Having a number of ancillary characters is fine, just as long as we know the few who we should invest in as viewers. -Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer