“The Ex-List” Review: Add It to Your List

The premise is the most charming of all of this season’s new shows…

A woman is told by a psychic that she only has a year to get married and that she has already met her future husband. So now, she has to revisit her old relationships to try and find her soulmate.

But does the execution live up to the premise? Thankfully, it does…

The woman is Bella (Elizabeth Reaser), a florist shop owner, who just ended an eight-year relationship with a man because he doesn’t want to get married. The visit to a psychic during her sister’s bachelorette party sends her world into a tailspin as the psychic tells her if she doesn’t get married in a year, she never will.

When Bella pushes for specifics about the man, the psychic tells her to read the signs. In the premiere, Bella follows the signs to a musician she dated seven years ago. In a flashback, we see what went wrong then to help us see what’s bound to go wrong now.

Of course, Bella’s search is probably for naught, since her soulmate is probably Elliott (Mark Deklin), the guy she just broke up with and who she shares custody of their dog with.

Bella is aided in her search by her housemates, Augie (Adam Rothenberg), Vivian (Alexander Breckenridge) and Cyrus (Amir Talai); and her sister, Daphne (Rachel Boston). Her father, Jimmy (William Russ), is also around to give her a hand with the shop.

The show is just as charming as it sounds with a good mix of comedy and drama—but mostly comedy. Reaser is adorable and the rest of the cast is good as well. Unfortunately in the premiere, Rothenberg and Breckinridge are saddled with a terrible subplot about Vivian’s creative bikini waxes. If it was aiming to be outrageously funny, it completely missed the mark. Hopefully, they’ll have better things to do in the future…

The real star of the premiere is actually Eric Balfour, who guests as Johnny, Bella’s musician ex. In the flashback, he’s an overly emotional and clingy guy who can’t stop writing songs about his “angel.” But in the present, he’s turned into a rebellious rocker. Balfour is fantastic playing both personalities and I really appreciate the show taking the risk to cast him (Balfour’s become a bit of a show killer.). If the rest of Bella’s exes are as well cast (and with Eric Winter leading them off next week, I’m guessing that they are), the show will be a real treat.

It’s Reaser, though, who needs to carry the show and I think she’s more than capable…

My biggest concern is that a dramedy like “List” is totally incompatible with its companions, “Ghost Whisperer” and “Numb3rs.” But when you’re the number one network, you don’t have a lot of open slots.

I just hope CBS won’t cross this one off its list anytime soon…

“The Ex-List” premieres Friday, October 3rd at 9 p.m. on CBS…

Photo Credit: Cliff Lipson/CBS