There are a lot of reasons that we want to like ABC's new sitcom Miss Guided, but the foremost is that it stars Judy Greer. Greer has, for several years now, been the kind of hard-to-cast comedienne whose quirky brand of off-center funniness struggles to find the perfect vehicle. Like her predecessors in this quandary — Joan Cusack, Bonnie Hunt, Téa Leoni — Greer isn't the prototypical bombshell sitcom actress, though like those predecessors she's quite attractive. Her performances in tiny roles tend to bring out critics' inner casting directors, but she's never found the right role. She's played the wallflower or the bitch or the funny best friend ten million times — Jawbreaker, What Women Want, 13 Going on 30, Love Monkey, 27 Dresses — and had nice guest star spots on My Name Is Earl and Arrested Development. Her funniest, but least-seen role, was as David Duchovny's brittle, incompetent manager in The TV Set. Will Miss Guided be the part that finally makes her a star?

Probably not, alas. We didn't love the show when we watched its pilot way back in May, although it's been on the shelf so long it certainly could have been reworked. But the reviews today are mediocre, and even the biggest rave — from Ginia Bellafante in the Times — doesn't scream "big hit." Bellafante compares the show to Get a Life and Strangers With Candy, two great shows that never really broke out, and describes it in terms that scream "cute show, no future": "Guided by an ambient lunacy, the show resists forced restlessness, settling in and fleshing out its characters’ idiosyncrasies instead." (Also, Bellafante slags our beloved Cavemen for no reason. Why kick us when we're down?)

Will Judy Greer ever find her perfect role? For all her career frustration, Joan Cusack has gotten two Oscar nominations for two big hits, Working Girl and In & Out. Téa Leoni was perfect in Flirting With Disaster, but no one else could figure out what to do with her. Bonnie Hunt has been in so many failed TV shows — good ones, bad ones, sitcoms, talk shows — that we've lost track. It would be nice if Greer didn't meet the same fate.

A Guidance Counselor’s Second (Pained) Adolescence [NYT]
Judy Greer [Fametracker]

Earlier: ABC's ‘Miss/Guided’: Like Déjà Vu All Over Again