Starting with its hugely successful program "Lost," the ABC network has profited exorbitantly from TV series involving flashbacks.
"Samantha Who?" is this season's new addition to an ever-growing list of shows without any real timeline or order. In fact, the scenes in "Samantha Who?" are so disorganized that neither the audience nor the main character, a deranged Christina Applegate, knows what is really going on.
After waking up from an eight-day coma, Samantha (Applegate) is diagnosed with retrograde amnesia. She has no recollection of herself, her family or her friends. Consequently, the show's writers cleverly label the rest of the scenes and characters so that every aspect of the series feels like a memo for both the audience and protagonist.
Unfortunately, labeling doesn't really do much to help the audience keep track. Unlike "Lost," the flashbacks in "Samantha Who?" do more to confuse the audience than add any depth to the show's story.
As Sam begins to piece her life together, she discovers that before the coma, she was a pretty unpleasant and immoral person - and possibly an alcoholic. Although doctors tell Sam she won't be able to remember anything from her former life, her true self kicks in from time to time in the form of unexpected, rude interjections that reflect how horrible of a person she was.
Nonetheless, Sam vows to get a grip on her outbursts and her life rather than give in to the callous behavior that the amnesia suppressed. Fate forces her to start over the right way.
Despite the potential for a healing and heart-warming storyline, the show feels more like the hit-and-run accident that placed Sam in a coma in the first place.
It boasts a cast made in TV heaven, including Melissa McCarthy from the critically acclaimed sitcom "Gilmore Girls" and Barry Watson from "7th Heaven."
Yet "Samantha Who?" squanders its actors' talents on jumpy sequencing that alternates between flashbacks and what is supposed to be the main character's strange reality every three to five minutes.
Although everything is so clearly labeled that it isn't hard to figure out which is which, the brief expositions make it nearly impossible to identify the setting, let alone get a feel for the characters.
Arguably, the whole premise of "Samantha Who?" is to extend the bewildered and aggravated feeling of its amnesiac protagonist to its audience. This is all well and good, except that while both Sam and the show's audience try to make sense of their jumbled surroundings, the comedic aspect of the show is completely lost.
None of the comedic potential of a character who doesn't know who she is and doesn't recognize her best friends is exploited, and Sam's attempt to reconstruct her life comes off as more pathetic and sad than funny. For a show that's supposed to be a comedy, there is very little to laugh at.
The supporting characters in "Samantha Who?" do little to contribute to the show. Viewers find themselves annoyed rather than amused by the mean-girl antics of Sam's supposed best friend, Andrea (Jennifer Esposito).
Instead of helping Sam, and by extension, the audience, make sense of her life, Andrea ignores the fact that Sam knows absolutely nothing. Andrea, as well as the rest of the cast, stands in the way of understanding the show.
Despite its many faults, "Samantha Who?" is a credible, quirky "comedy" with a lot of potential. If the rest of the series doesn't improve from the frantic writing of the pilot episode, the audience, like the central character, will indubitably forget who Samantha is.
