The Bad Girl's Guide

Reviewed by:
Patrick Richardson

We can't pretend there's a reason to watch this UPN sitcom other than to gawk at Jenny McCarthy in skin-tight tops. But in case you need to justify your television viewing habits to your girlfriend—sissy!—The Bad Girl's Guide isn't all bad. Based on the emasculating chick-lit series of the same name, Guide is a sexed-up sitcom that's not afraid to show its girls smoking a joint at work or getting freaky in a nightclub bathroom. McCarthy shines as its star, the alpha female in a group of modern gals who pursue their Sex and the City dreams according to their own rules in Chicago. But while the humor is more sexually-charged than Friends, jokes about The Bachelor and shout-outs to America's Next Top Model risk drowning this series in too much single-girl power. To make things worse, McCarthy is surrounded by novices who deliver the type of uneven performances that have doomed other UPN classics like…um…what was that one with Jake Busey?