'B Positive' review: New sitcom is comfort food for a hungry audience

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Drew (Thomas Middleditch, "Silicon Valley") is a divorced father of a young daughter, and a therapist who practices in either Connecticut or Westchester (unclear which, but there are references to both). One day, the bad news: He needs a new kidney.

Then, at a wedding, he meets up with a clearly inebriated acquaintance from high school days, the free-spirited Gina (Annaleigh Ashford), who is happy to give him one of hers. Only problem: She has no memory of her generous offer the next day. This new sitcom, from Chuck Lorre and Marco Pennette ("Ugly Betty," "Mom"), is based on Pennette's own story.

MY SAY The strange half-light that has enveloped the few sitcoms produced in the pandemic era (think NBC's now-canceled "Connecting," "The Conners") is missing from "B Positive." There are no references to pandemics at all. Nor any obligatory Zoom jokes. Nor mask ones. Nor, thankfully, quarantine quips either. And nothing about presidents, elections, economies, misery, death.

"B Positive's" pilot was taped back in the pre-pandemic Paleozoic era, in those golden days when studio audiences were real and sitcoms were fake, or, to be exact, mid-March. But the production shut down right after that, and only recently picked up again. Still, no COVID-19 refs in the second episode while the laugh track has become just that — a track. In fact, none of Lorre's other returning shows are expected to engage COVID -19 storylines, but will proceed as if nothing has turned our world upside down at all.

In a sense, this is Chuck Lorre's way of saying that it's safe to go back in the water again. Viewers, along with the rest of humanity, would rather forget the pandemic, but knowing that's not an option, at least to forget it in the context of a featherweight sitcom. Besides, Lorre sitcoms ("Mom," "Young Sheldon") don't like their light "half" anyway, but full, bright, unrelenting, nor are they particularly (or specifically) topical. They are one-joke setups which are elaborately braided through whole subsets of other jokes and other premises while their success is predicated on the skill of the performers and the sharpness of the writing.

Not that "B Positive" — a pun, but you figured that out already — is featherweight. Like "Mom," this is about addiction, disease, life-and-death, even faith, but a reminder that there's a way to handle all that within the context of something as contrived as a sitcom.

It's also a reminder of how important those skills are. Middleditch fans will easily see "Silicon's" Richard Hendricks in Drew, while Ashford fans will just see Ashford, which is plenty. She's pretty much terrific in everything she does, most of that on Broadway (ah, remember Broadway?) and more recently, "Bad Education." Meanwhile, the pilot has a couple of cameos from a legend or two — Linda Lavin, Bernie Kopell — as a reminder of happier days. (Kopell from "Love Boat" and Lavin from "Alice" and so much more).

So, sure: It's maybe easy, too easy, to write off "B Positive" as just another sitcom with a few setup jokes, along with the usual, predictable beats. But there's something else here, something potentially even good.

Which would be? Call it comfort food, well-served.

BOTTOM LINE A charmer