DVD Flashback Friday: Raising Hope

Reviews, Shows

I have a confession to make. I totally flaked out with DVD Flashback Friday this summer.

Are you ready for my excuses? I moved, it took forever to get my phone/Internet/TV hooked up, Bachelor Pad took all my writing energy, my dog ate my laptop…yeah, I don’t really know guys. Sorry.

BUT I did actually watch one of the shows I said I was going to catch up on: Raising Hope! And good news: I loved it.

Raising Hope (about to start its second season on Fox) is a warm, kooky sitcom about a 23 year-old guy who unexpectedly becomes a single dad and has to raise his newborn daughter with the help of his wacky family.

The show gets off to a very kooky start – Jimmy Chance has a one night stand with a girl, only to discover that she’s actually a serial killer. She winds up pregnant, in jail, and is executed when the baby (named Princess Beyonce by her mother, renamed Hope by Jimmy and his family) is six months old.

Lucas Neff is fantastic as the lovable but dopey Jimmy. Martha Plimpton is very funny as his mom Virginia, and Garret Dillahunt does a great job as Jimmy’s even dopier, but still lovable, dad. The Chance family are kind of white trash, but you never really feel like the show is mocking them. Cloris Leachman adds a lot of laughs as Jimmy’s senile grandmother, and Shannon Woodward is very charming as Jimmy’s crush, coworker and friend Sabrina.

Now, can we talk about Hope for a minute? She is one of the most adorable babies on TV. Just look:

She’s even cute with creepy makeup on:

At first, the show relied more on Hope for laughs – in particular, it relied on Jimmy’s lacking parenting skills for comedy. But as the show developed, it moved past that. By the end of season one, I hardly ever cringed at things Jimmy did with his baby. It became more about the characters, and there are a lot more reasons to laugh.

Raising Hope will return on Tuesday, September 20. Check out the trailer below.


You can follow Jill at her blog, couchtimewithjill.com, or on Twitter @jillemader Jill has been an avid fan of TV since the age of two, when she was so obsessed with Zoobilee Zoo that her mother lied and told her it had been canceled. Despite that setback, she grew up to be a television aficionado and pop culture addict.