Fox's latest brainchild, "The Wedding Bells," depicts the chaos behind The Wedding Palace, a family-owned and operated wedding planning business run by the Bell sisters. The three sisters are challenged with the task of managing their own love lives as well as those of their neurotic clientele. They inherited the company after their parents' divorce and now employ a slew of interesting characters, including one ex and one husband that round out the cast.
Annie (KaDee Strickland), the emotionally detached sister and boss, is charged with keeping all of her sisters focused while avoiding obvious sexual tensions with her ex, the photographer David (Michael Landes). In fact, the entire show operates on sexual tension between the employers and employees.
Jane (Teri Polo), the blonde sister with straight hair, not to be confused with her curly headed counterpart, Sammy (Sarah Jones), spends the episode denying her attraction to the Greek/wannabe Italian chef, Ernesto (Costas Mandylor). Jane's husband Russell (Benjamin King) is forced to cope with his jealousy issues while being constantly shoved off to the side, but continues to insist his importance with the repetition of his title within the company, COO. He comically handles the situation with his wife and the cook with overly masculine behavior and uncontested rage.
Amanda Pontell (Missi Pyle), whose wedding the women are planning, is convincing as a total bride-zilla and complete nightmare. Disaster nearly strikes when she gets into a fight with the wedding singer, Ralph (Chris Williams), over the particular arrangement of a song.
However, Amanda and her demonic pug are no match for her mother, who is described as an "acquired taste." The mother of the bride controls more of the wedding than anyone else, as she pays Sammy $500 to instruct the minister to mention Jesus at least twice during her daughter's interfaith wedding. She also threatens to remove her own sister from the wedding if she started crying due to the fact that she herself has the inability to cry, caused by her defective tear ducts.
Though she is scarier, the mother's demands are easier to meet than Amanda's, who is perpetually shouting "I'm not satisfied!" to anyone who she is paying. She threatens to cancel the wedding over her spat with Ralph. With a lot of careful planning and manipulation, the wedding is back on, but not without a glitch five minutes before the wedding is scheduled to begin, when Amanda simply cannot walk down the aisle because she does not feel sexy.
It's no surprise though, since her dress is the most heinous piece of clothing to be on a bride since Britney's Vegas wedding. After an impromptu photo shoot with David, she is able to march down the aisle with confidence. Jesus is mentioned, and everything continues smoothly until the reception.
Upon returning to the Wedding Palace, Sammy discovers that the groomsman she chose to have an affair with is married, just as Jane manages to calm her husband's jealousy. However, the episode does not end without an allusion to a further encounter between Ernesto and Jane. Just as the episode is winding down and Ralph belts "I Will Survive" to an enthused crowd of poor dancers, the mother of the bride-zilla announces the arrival of the cherry jubilee dessert. It would have been a jubilee if it did not catch Amanda's dress on fire and make a hilarious, but ultimately very sad ending to the day.
Overall, the show was able to produce funny and believable situations, without being overreaching in its comic pursuits. While the acting was good and the plot was interesting, there were some points where the show attempted to get a little too dramatic. The comedy without the strange dramatic interlude is more than sufficient for a Fox show. Once a distinction between the two genres is established, it has no where to go but up.
While "The Wedding Bells" shows potential, it might not be enough to lure viewers away from the superior "What Not to Wear," which airs on TLC in the same time slot. Nevertheless, "The Wedding Bells" is good enough that it will help to fill the commercial breaks of better shows.
