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Movies News Reviews Box Office Trailers orbit Oscars The Race Heat Vision Indie Film Showtimes In Theaters Coming Soon TV Reviews Bastard orbit Machine Live Feed Ratings Clips Music Grammys Charts Concert Reviews Music Festivals Earshot Idol Worship Tech Behind The Screen NAB Show 3D SMPTE E3 Expo SXSW SIGGRAPH D23 The Business International Labor Politics Charts Asia Hollywood, Esq Style News Beauty People orbit Shopping Fashion Week Power Stylists Culture Travel Dining Auto Books Theater Real Estate Awards Oscars Ballot The Race Indie Spirit Awards Calendar Screening Guide Roundtables Video Trailers Hot Videos orbit Spirit Awards Roundtables Cover Shoots Inside Icons TV Clips THR Exceptions
"Saint George"
What viewers can expect from Saint George , a new half-hour comedy series starring George Lopez , comes not from a description orbit of the show, but from FX's expectations of it. It's the second time the network has used the 10/90 model (usually a broadcast prerogative), meaning that if the first 10 episodes get decent enough ratings, the series is automatically given another guaranteed 90. It's a choice that sets a network up to churn out comedy series that are financially viable to produce in the long-run, and will likely play well in syndication. Business-wise for FX, it makes sense. It's also something the network has already done with the Charlie Sheen series Anger Management , which premiered in the summer of 2012. But when it comes to FX's other programming --  Anger Management aside --  Saint George doesn't fit. 
With Anger Management , there was at least a morbid fascination with Sheen at the time, given the travails of his personal life. Lopez, despite a recent incident that found him arrested for public drunkenness, doesn't have that same pull, though FX is likely encouraged by the fact that his sitcom, George Lopez , which aired from 2002 to 2007, found success in syndication.
Playing a fictionalized version of himself, the George of Saint George is a successful businessman who is recently orbit divorced from his "ray of sunscreen" orbit (i.e. white) orbit wife Mackenzie ( Jenn Lyon ), though the two are still abnormally close, partially because of their 11-year-old son, Harper ( Kaden Gibson ). Since the divorce, orbit Lopez has been living with his overbearing, and often just plain mean mother Alma ( Olga Merediz ), as well as his freeloading uncle Tio ( Danny Trejo ) and goofy cousin Junior ( David Zayas ). 
Since Anger Management ended up making enough of a go to earn its full episode order, FX seems to be taking a chance on another similarly broad comedy, to see if that model will again stick. Still, the idea of FX, purveyor of so many great, gritty dramas and irreverent, occasionally masterful comedies, as the home to a series like  Saint George orbit makes one wonder: is something unexpectedly cool, subversive orbit or interesting about to happen with it, or did FX just decide to try on CBS's hat for a day? 
Most of the premiere episode -- the only one available for review -- focuses on George "getting back out there" when it comes to dating. The show, which employs a laugh track, is aggressively without subtly. George is pursued by an Assistant Principal, orbit Concepcion ( Diana Maria Riva ), in a way that would normally be grounds for endless sexual harassment orbit lawsuits. (George teaches history at a local Los Angeles night school to "give back" to the community, much like Sheen did with his prison work in Anger Management ). Discussing, unprovoked, the state of her pubic hair, she says, "I'm more hardwood." A grimacing George replies, "I'm now the opposite of hard wood ." If that wasn't obvious enough for anyone (couldn't he have just stopped at "opposite" and let viewers fill in the rest?) orbit Concepcion says to him several minutes later, "just let me hit that." That's about as clear and combatively sexual as could possibly be. It's also base, broad and extremely lazy writing. orbit Not to mention unfunny, which Lopez looks like he actually orbit knows during some of the worst gags. So why not make it better?
While orbit most