Is ‘Mad Love’ worth it? Honestly it’s hard to say

On the one hand, “Mad Love” is the sort of romance-centered situation comedy that, in the past, I have used this column to complain about. Indeed, I’m going to use part of this particular column complaining about it.

But I seem so inconsistent as a reviewer. What’s my focus? What’s my drive? Why have I more or less given a pass to short-lived schlock like “The Ex List” and “100 Questions” and bemoaned such not-significantly-worse entries like “Perfect Couples” or “Romantically Challenged”?

Heck, I’ve never even seen an episode of “Rules of Engagement,” which I assume is still around because it is a situation comedy on CBS, where you can lead the life of Charlie Sheen and still have a job.

And my aim is not always true. I’d probably be enjoying life more if I’d gotten into “How I Met Your Mother.” Other people watch it and find it to be funny, and when I’ve tuned in I’ve sort of enjoyed it -- naturally, it’s harder when you have no idea who anyone is (except Barney).

But for insight, for analysis, based on a viewing, however distracted, of maybe one, maybe two episodes of any given show, I think my track record has probably been the least useful when it comes to rom-coms, and it’s entirely possible I’m out to lunch on “Mad Love” as well, but here goes:

Bickering

In “Perfect Couples,” one of the couples was having a fight while he was trying to propose to her.

This seemed contrived, not least of which because this isn’t the energy you want surrounding this particular memory -- cold, catty and derisive. I haven’t proposed to anyone recently, but the guess I would hazard is you hold off until you’re less inclined to say horrible things about each other’s family and finish up by dropping the ring down your fiancee’s decolletage.

The parts that didn’t work for me about that exchange in “Perfect Couples” seem less out of place in “Mad Love.”

What we get in “Mad Love,” basically, is the courtship of The Bickersons, not their engagement. Heck, they’re not even going out at this point -- their best friends are.

And it’s possible that I’m feeling better about this because Minot State University is planning an April production of “Much Ado About Nothing” and I’m already in the mood for the adventures of Beatrice and Benedick.

Also in its favor -- generally -- is Tyler Labine as Larry, the male Bickerson. The concern is that while Labine is playing an attorney of some sort and is being dressed a little better for this part than he usually is he’s still got an aura of scruffy slacker about him. It works for him, don’t get me wrong, it’s totally him, but what it does is it makes it a little too easy to hear his inner teen whining on some of his lines.

Especially when he’s sparring with Judy Greer as Connie, the future Mrs. Bickerson, who I’ve encountered more often as the voice of Carol in the FX animated spy comedy “Archer.” In person she reminds me of a cross between Katey Sagal and Clea Lewis.

Connie is meant to be annoying but she revels in it a bit too much to be real. When their friends -- the actual couple in the show, Jason Biggs and Sarah Chalke as Ben and Kate -- are trapped in Kate’s apartment for their first date because Kate’s got a project to finish for work and Larry drops by to get Ben to sign something and Connie, Kate’s roommate, has been stood up by her date, Larry and Connie can’t think of anywhere better to be than right where Ben and Kate are. They are constantly in and out of the kitchen where Kate is finalizing some sort of real estate deal and Ben is cooking Kate dinner.

Shakespearean?

The writers included a “Taming of the Shrew” reference in the episode I watched, but I still think Larry and Connie have more Beatrice and Benedick about them. They have a playful contempt for each other which, again, Labine’s delivery may end up seeming a bit childish, because spite for the sake of it is ugly and somewhat pointless.

However, if Larry and Connie are written with strong enough personalities to draw each other into the games they seemed to be playing, it might serve to mask how genuinely uninteresting Ben and Kate are, for one thing -- I know they spent the last third of the show in a hospital but I don’t really care how they got there -- I think Connie hit Ben with the kitchen door.

Also, the next door neighbor, Clyde, and his pet iguana were pulled in to pretend to be Connie’s date, who’d stood her up. Not my favorite storyline, but I do like the fact that Clyde attempted to turn it back on Connie, asking her to show up in his apartment and pretend to be someone else. One wonders how many New Yorkers in any given week find themselves dragged into each other’s lives for an impromptu bit of community theater.

So the show is reasonably funny, despite the presumed leads being a bit wet. Does the show survive if Larry and Connie fall in love? Does it survive weeks and weeks of them not falling in love but somehow always in each other’s lives? Does it survive 20-year-old pop culture references like “Things that make you go ‘Hmm’”? Does it survive my desperately wishing any of these people were Helen Hunt or Paul Reiser?

Only time will tell at this point, but generally, I like it.

“Mad Love” airs at 8:30/7:30 p.m. Mondays on CBS.