If you were so inclined by mood or personality type, you could easily find a few reasons to dislike "The Ex List," CBS' new hourlong dramedy that premieres tonight. Certainly it has an air of prepackaged perkiness that can be quite irritating.
The main character, for example, has her own flower shop and her name is, drumroll please, Bella Bloom. She lives in one of those adorable SoCal beach-adjacent bungalow courts, which are so difficult to find and impossible to afford, with three requisite good-looking roommates who spend an inordinate amount of time lounging together because they all really like each other and none of them seems to have a job. Or at least a job that requires anything resembling work.
But just because something's almost unforgivably cute ("Holy hottie, Batman" is an actual line) doesn't mean it can't also be very good and very funny, which "The Ex List" is. It may be more smile-heh-chuckle funny than belly-laugh funny, but still, it is an oasis in a parched comedic landscape.
The premise is certainly tantalizing (and lifted from an Israeli show called "The Mythological Ex"): While hosting her sister's bachelorette party, Bella (Elizabeth Reaser) encounters a psychic (Anne Bedian) who tells her that if she doesn't get married within a year, she never will. Oh, and Bella has already met, and broken up with, "the guy" in question. Spurred on by her wacky roommates -- Vivian (Alexandra Breckenridge), Vivian's boyfriend Augie (Adam Rothenberg) and comic third wheel Cyrus (Amir Talai) -- along with the accuracy of several less significant predictions, Bella decides to embrace the challenge. Hence, the ex list of the title.
In this age of Internet-spurred, old-flame hook-ups, it is a resonant scenario, and "What if . . ." has always been one of the more dangerous and comedic of human thoughts. The premise guarantees not only a new guy every week -- in the pilot it's "24's" Eric Balfour as tear-duct-challenged rocker Johnny Diamont -- but also a parade of amusingly doomed relationships that will wrap up in an hour.
Although confined a bit by the show's just-what-makes-that-little-old-ant optimism and all those lovely young people, Diane Ruggiero's script is smart and punchy, sweet without being sticky. But what makes this show so promising is the cast (also, the blessed absence of a voice-over).
