So Help Me Todd Season 1 Review
With the new season of So Help Me Todd airing this week, I figured I’d review of season one.
I didn’t really know about this show in the beginning because I don’t watch a whole lot of network television anymore. I tend to look for things on Hulu or Netflix or Peacock. When Paramount+ had a deal on their streaming platform, I signed up and I was looking through some of the shows they carried, and that’s when I found So Help Me Todd.
I would definitely classify this as a cozy mystery. The first season doesn’t always involve a murder being solved, but since it airs on CBS it is void of curse words, on screen sex, and gratuitous amounts of blood and gore. So, I was looking forward to it. The problem is that I almost stopped watching halfway through the first season.
The show stars Marcia Gay Harden and Skylar Astin. Now, when it comes to Harden, I know she’s a great actress and is usually in a lot of dramatic roles. Harden plays Margaret, Todd’s mother, and a high-powered lawyer. Seeing her in this show and trying to be on the funnier side for the dramedy it took a little getting used to. I crossed that threshold though and I enjoyed her character—for the most part. She does tend to be a little overbearing, something I’ll touch on when it comes to her on-screen daughter, Allison. It was a little annoying to see how smothering she was on the show.
Skylar Astin I know has been in films, but I haven’t seen him in much of stuff. He seems funny enough, and in the beginning of the series I was really starting to get some Psych vibes from him. He seemed to be going for, either consciously or maybe it’s just his acting style, for the same kind of vibe that James Roday had in Psych. Except, Astin kind of over does it. He almost overacts in the show. What should be a funny punchline or joke is almost ruined at times. I don’t feel like he lets the joke breath. I’m not sure if that’s his fault as an actor, or that’s just how the pacing of the show is.
That aside, those reasons aren’t why I almost stopped watching it. There are two main reasons why; first, it’s because of Astin’s titular character, Todd.
So, in the first few episodes, Todd’s a little whiney, seems a little bitter, but at the same time he’s kind of likeable. He’s down on hard times and has to move in with his sister. She has her own issues, which again, I’ll get to in a minute, but his jokes weren’t coming off as jokes in the beginning. I thought he was just being sarcastically rude. There’s one episode where he complains about his dinner being cold. A dinner his sister made after working a ten-hour shift at the hospital she works at, and I thought, “Geez, man, show a little gratitude.”
This thing is, I’m pretty sure it was a joke. I want to say the first five or six, heck, maybe the first half of the season, Todd makes these sarcastic remarks that I think make him look like a jerk. It’s not until halfway through the season that I realize he IS joking. He’s kidding around. But the way he was acting, or the actors around him were acting, I didn’t pick up on that. I thought he was being a real jerk, when he’s just making Shawn Spencer or even Chandler Bing kind of jokes. But I didn’t understand that they were jokes until Susan (the unrequited love interest of the show) laughs at a couple things he says in front of his mother, Margaret. Margaret looks at Susan, annoyed and tells Susan, “That’s not funny.” She smiles, holding back a giggle and says, “It’s kinda funny.” It was that point I had the lightbulb moment. “Oh! He’s being funny. He’s not being a jerk.”
The other part of this show is Todd’s sister, Margaret’s daughter, Allison. Now Allison has her own side-story going on where she’s in an unhappy marriage with a complete pushover, who’s actually pretty clueless too. The thing is, I think the writers could’ve made it so we felt some kind of empathy for Allison and her situation. People end up in bad situations or relationships that they are unhappy with all the time in life. But Allison is so whiney in this first season.
It’s not only that she’s whiney, but she blames her mother for everything. Growing up she was so hellbent on being the perfect daughter that she always got good grades, went to medical school, married who she thought was the perfect man according to who she thought her mother would approve. It feels like Allison takes no responsibly for her own life. In an episode, after she’s left her husband and she’s staying with her mother, she’s lying down in bed when Margaret tries to come over and talks to her. Maybe offer her some comfort.
Margaret says, “I think you’ve made a good choice.”
“One of the few choices I’ve made,” Allison says.
Margaret says, “Allison, I only want what’s best for you. But if I ever pressured you—”
Allison cuts her off. “If?”
After a little further interaction between the two, Margaret finally says, “Are you going to be okay, Allison? I want you to be okay.”
“Mom, right now I don’t want to hear what you want me to be.”
I’m sorry, I don’t curse very much, but Allison comes off as a total bitch. I understand that she made her choices based on what her mother wanted for her life, be she is the one that made those choices. It’s all so very frustrating that I was left for no empathy for that character.
All of that said, and because I did finally figure out Todd was being funny and not a jerk halfway through the season, I am looking forward to season two. I want to see how Todd continues to get his life back together. His mother, Margaret, has her own storyline where she’s trying to make partner at the law firm she works at, so I’m interested to see where that goes.
The thing I like most about the show are the mysteries. They are really good, so hopefully season 2 of So Help Me Todd advances the good storylines from season one and it gets better.
This week, in way of some new or new-to-you cozy mystery books I’ve got the following, and they are both paranormal cozies!
A Witchy Secret
Secrets. Lies. And murder.
Charley’s relationship with her boyfriend is better than she’d hoped, but she’s keeping a secret from him that could destroy his trust.
After disappearing for a year, her uncle makes an unexpected appearance with secrets of his own. And, when a woman is found dead in the small town, accusing fingers point directly toward him.
It seems all of Whispering Pines is about to explode from the secrets it’s keeping. How can Charley expose the skeletons and find a murderer before chaos erupts?
If you enjoy magic, quirky characters, and small-town mysteries with a touch of romance, you're sure to enjoy A Witchy Secret!
Tainted Truffle Recipe
Strange things are happening in Black Sands.
A series of sudden and unexplained deaths of three magical practitioners has Corvin worried, and he convinces Reg to join him in trying to track down the cause and the culprit behind them.
As Reg and her friends investigate the deaths with Corvin and Detective Marta Jessup, they uncover a sinister plot involving the wildly popular Mystical Morsels. But who is distributing them and why? Reg follows the trail to Tennessee where, with the help of her foster sister Erin, they track the mastermind behind the poisoned truffles.
But the danger is far from over as they discover the true motive behind the deadly plot and face a dangerous enemy who shows no remorse for the innocent lives lost.
There’s no sugar coating it—with time running out, Reg must use all her sleuthing skills to uncover the source of the curse and stop the distribution of the deadly desserts before more lives are lost.
It’s a race against time in this paranormal mystery that’s sure to leave you craving more!
That’s it for this week. Until next time,
Ron Tucker aka The Cozy Dude
Thank you for mentioning A Witchy Secret! ❤️