Review: 'Pearl'

I will be the first to admit that I don't care much for Malcolm McDowell. It's not that he's a bad actor, but his roles haven't been memorable ones for me. Usually, when I hear his name, I get confused and think, "Wasn't he in that Planet of The Apes movie?" So when I heard he was going to be in a sitcom, teamed with "Cheers" alumni Rhea Perlman...well, I had a sinking feeling that this was going to as painful to watch as the average High School student performance of Hamlet. 

Imagine my surprise when I saw the pilot of "Pearl" and found a funny, quirky sitcom. It's not great yet, but there is a lot of potential. Rhea Perlman plays the lead character, a working class Mom who finds herself widowed at an early age and decides to go back to school. She applies to the local community college and finds herself dropped into an unfamiliar world, populated with students who are at best, offbeat. And while she's a tough character, she runs into someone just as tough, a sadistic blowhard of a Humanities professor, played by Malcolm McDowell.

You could probably write the story from there. She has trouble fitting in, she quits the class, decided to come back, and upstages the Professor. At the same time, she banters and mothers her fellow students, educating them as much as they teach her.

This is one of the shows that you can't examine too closely. The pilot is written by Don Reo, who has been working on "The John Laroquette Show." And like that series, "Pearl" is charming despite itself. There are some funny lines, and an underlying energy that blows you past the astounding leaps in logic. The pilot was directed by veteran James Burrows and he manages to make the most of the scenes by visually forcing the material into shape. Try not to think about the fact that the school looks more like Harvard than the average community college, and Malcolm McDowell is certainly too self-important to be teaching there.

There's a lot to like about the series. Everyone is trying way too hard right now, but that's typical in a pilot. CBS may have a winner here, and Rhea Perlman may be the luckiest woman on television this season. The show was originally scheduled to air on Wednesdays, but the problems with "Ink" have given her this much cushier timeslot, between "Cosby" and "Murphy Brown." And I hope she's gonna make the most of it.

Beside the leads, there are a couple of other recognizable faces. Carol Kane makes an appearance with a strange inspirational tale of Jay Leno's fear of the open sky. And fans of "Unhappily Ever After" may recognize Nikki Cox, who plays a sexy, sarcastic coed.

"Pearl" airs on CBS Mondays at 8:30 PM Eastern.

The Cast:

Rhea Perlman as Pearl Caraldo

Malcolm McDowell as Stephen Pynchon

Carol Kane as Annie Carmen

Kevin Corrigan as Frankie Spivak

Nikki Cox as Margret Woodrow

Dash Mihok as Joey Caraldo

Lucy Alexis Lui as Amy Li