Sadly Over-hyped

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Before Jennifer Aniston was Rachel Greene in the mega-hit, Friends, she was working and doing a series like Muddling Through about a daughter of a paroled convict played perfectly by Stephanie Faracy. Sadly, this show even if Aniston had left to do Friends could have found an audience. I love rural and blue collar comedies. I actually think her character was better here as the daughter playing mother. In Friends, she played spoiled Rachel. This show wasn't bad but it wasn't as memorable as it could have been. Faracy was perfect as Aniston's mother. The story about a female paroled convict returning home to live with her daughter and her son-in-law is plausible. I guess networks don't care for shows about blue collar and rural comedies. It's a shame too.

This show never got much of a chance to succeed. Stephanie Hodge starred after "Nurses" and before "Unhappily Ever After." This sat on the shelf for a while, though, and by the time it was dropped into the schedule during the summer, most everyone involved had moved on. Hodge was soon to do "Unhappily," and Jennifer Aniston started "Friends" that fall. It's really a shame, because "Muddling" wasn't half bad as unheralded, small-net sitcoms go. Hodge played a white-trash ex-con released after a shortish prison sentence received for shooting her husband in the butt. Unfortunately, after she got out, he was back in her life. Her daughter (Aniston) and son-in-law were also around to complicate her life. The show was, as I said, non-terrible, and if I remember correctly, the ratings were decent. They weren't decent enough, however, to give the show a future.