Call Me Kat Review

Towards the end of the pilot in the new Fox show “Call Me Kat,” the title character turns to her mother and says that she’s 39 and single so her life “is going to be messy.”

“Messy” is indeed the best–or at least the nicest word–to describe the garbled, poorly written new Fox sitcom about a single woman who uses her life savings to buy a cat cafe.

Kat, of course, is the character played by Mayim Bialik (The Big Bang Theory, Blossom). Kat is a frustrated single who suffers from social anxiety and yearns to not be defined by her single status despite often obsessing over it. After quitting her college teaching job and spending her inheritance on opening a cat cafe, she now works with a group of eccentric characters including Phil (Leslie Jordan), a recently single gay man who does most of the baking (for the humans) at the cat cafe and Randi (Kyla Pratt) who is the cafe’s waitress. 

Kat often visits the watering hole next door where she banters with the bartender (Julian Gant) and runs into her old college crush Max (Cheyenne Jackson) in the pilot episode. Meanwhile, Kat’s disapproving mom (Swoosie Kurtz) frequently tries to push Kat into relationships because anything is better in her mind than having a single daughter.

And on a paper that sounds like a good concept. Scenes at home. Scenes with co-workers. Scenes with friends. Scenes in a cat cafe. It should work.

So why doesn’t it?

The show’s main conceit is the breaking the fourth wall approach. It’s a bit more sophisticated than the “timeout” talk to the camera we got from Zack Morris in the 1990s on Saved by the Bell but it’s actually worse–in that it really doesn’t provide the humor we assume the show’s creators think it’s generating. The timing seems terribly off here, as Kat addressing the camera doesn’t have enough separation from her dialogue to the characters on stage. It’s nevertheless an unfortunate choice for telling the story. It’s not cheesy enough, and certainly not funny, enough to work. And the proportion is way off as well–Kat talks more to the camera than her peers.

We get no explanation as to why she didn’t like being a college professor and why she loves cats. It’s not even evident that she does. This is terribly sloppy writing.

Then there’s the glamorous setting of Louisville. While it’s refreshing to see a sitcom set in a non-coastal city, one has to wonder if Louisville is the right choice. New York or LA might be cliche, but at least there’s a lot to talk about. Having the first episode involve a conflict about an “exclusive Louisville hotel” that Phil never set foot in, to the point where he has to manipulate a willing Kat to take him as her “plus one” to her childhood friend’s vow renewal so he can spend time there, just seemed odd. Would you really not be able to go to the hotel for lunch or dinner? And what’s next? A visit to the Louisville Slugger bat factory?

Yet perhaps the most troubling flaw involves the cats–or lack thereof. Most of the time the “cat cafe” seemed to be like any coffee shop you’d find in town. Don’t cat cafes have … I don’t know … cats? The pilot showed just two cats and only one up close. Yes, sadly the show was more entertaining when you play a game of “can I find a cat in this scene.” About ninety-five percent of the time the answer is no. No cats! It makes me yearn for the days of the cat who delivered newspapers on CBS’ late ‘90s drama, Early Edition. If folks at Fox are out there reading, you can borrow my cats Gatsby and Tosca and they may provide more humor by knocking things off tables than watching the actors on this show try to create jokes.

The show is based on a British show “Miranda” and starring British comedienne Miranda Hart. But in the British version of the show (where Miranda buys a “joke shop” and not a cat cafe) the things Miranda yells out are … funny. Hysterical even. Hart’s comedic timing is top notch. But in Call Me Kat, Kat’s interactions with other characters and her asides to the camera are often just awkward. Because Bialik is a great actor I choose to believe this is more of a function of weak writing. 

So is this a total catastrophe? Not quite. With Bialik, Jordan, Pratt, and Kurtz there are competent actors playing what could be interesting characters. The potential for making this work is there. There have been other sitcoms that have struggled with their pilot episodes and improved over the course of the season. Let’s hope Call Me Kat finds it way sooner rather than later. Because while I fear the show will never be purr-fect, I do hope it can find its rhythm and land successfully on its feet.

This week, Call Me Kat is moving to its regular time, Thursdays at 9 on Fox. It can be seen live here.