The Arbiter is a weekly column dedicated to revisiting canonical works of art, high and low alike, in an attempt to reevaluate their merit. All media are considered; none are pitied. As an homage to the greatest Jewish guardian of memory, Marcel Proust, each work will be rated on a scale of one to five madeleines, with one pastry meaning the work should be forgotten posthaste, and five arguing for a spirited recollection.
TV shows, like lovers, are never as thrilling as they are when we first meet them, when they’re sexy and clever and lighthearted and doing their damnedest to impress us. Judging by its seven-year run on NBC and robust afterlife in syndication, the first episodes of Mad About You, which debuted in 1992, charmed enough people into sticking around with its stars, Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt, and caring for their foibles as newlywed Manhattanites named Paul and Jamie Buchman. Having gone back and watched 40 hours of this show in the course of one thoroughly regrettable weekend, I can say with confidence that Mad About You—a show born in and of a cultural moment that produced MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice, Celine Dion and Milli Vanilli—is a soulless hoax, a stifling bit of fakery that, due to the regrettable state of the human condition and the specific deformities of the era in which it was made, became a hit.