June Colburn (Dreama Walker) has just moved from Indiana to New York City to start her new dream job in the awesome apartment that the company has provided. Unfortunately for her, that company got shut down while under investigation for embezzlement. Now left stranded on the street with all her stuff on the curb, June needs to find a new place to live, and fast.
Answering wanted-ads leads June through New York’s typical menagerie of weirdos until she stumbles upon Chloe (Krysten Ritter), who has an awesome space and a matching personality. She’s also BFFs with James Van Der Beek. June decides to take Chloe’s offer and everything looks like it’s coming back into place, until her neighbour down the hall tells her “don’t trust the bitch in apartment 23.” Although a little confused and concerned, June brushes off the ominous warning.
Now all moved in, June is content with her new living situation until she starts to notice some discrepancies from the very positive first impression. There is a perverted creep named Eli (Michael Blaiklock) that lives in the adjacent building who loves to stare and converse with apartment 23. On top of that, Chloe eats June’s clearly marked food and she invites guys over to have a foursome, with an invitation for June.
Chloe finally admits that not only did she charge June extra for rent and that she used the surplus money to buy a new purse, but her master plan was to get June to move out so she can keep the deposit June offered when she moved in. In a knee-jerk response, June sells all of Chloe’s stuff the next day which actually impresses Chloe more than angers her – the start of a beautiful friendship. Then, things get even more complicated when June’s fiancée come to visit her on her birthday.
The pilot episode of Don’t Trust The B—- In Apartment 23 brought us the typical “Odd Couple” scenario with the straight-laced June and the unconventional con-artist Chloe. Yes, the premise has been done before but the characters have charisma, as long as they don’t stick to being one-dimensional caricatures. If the writing in future episodes remains strong, the show can do well. There is a lot of room for comedy with June’s job search and Chloe’s next get-rich-quick scheme, alongside the amazing wildcard that is James Van Der Beek.
Speaking of James Van Der Beek, “the Beek from the creek” is in the show and he is hands down the best part. Here he plays a fictional version of himself and BFF to Chloe. Although we’ve already seen this done before with Neil Patrick Harris‘ contribution to the Harold and Kumar movies, for some reason I thoroughly loved the Beek’s role.
It’s clear that he’s still escaping his portrayal of Dawson Leery from the late 90’s/early 2000’s teen drama Dawson’s Creek, to which he has a love-hate relationship with: he loves how girls swoon at him because of it, but he hates him being typecasted because of it. There also was a Varsity Blues reference in the episode for good measure.
Like Neil Patrick Harris before him, Van Der Beek was a real scene-stealer and since we know he’s not above poking fun at himself (check out James Van Der Memes), it’s exciting to see where his character will go in the series
Although it bears a very typical sitcom premise, Don’t Trust The B—- In Apartment 23 pilot episode was full of humor and I think that the show has a lot of potential, has long as it doesn’t fall into the regular pifalls of sitcom television.
