TMC
04-14-2023, 03:46 AM
https://www.pastemagazine.com/comedy/dont-trust-the-b-tenth-anniversary
By Clare Martin | April 6, 2023 | 1:54pm
Roughly 11 years ago, Don’t Trust the B— in Apartment 23 debuted on television, and it was unfortunately doomed to have a short run. Nonetheless, the sitcom made an indelible impression on loyal viewers, and has gathered something close to a cult status in the years following its cancellation.
Don’t Trust the B— in Apartment 23 follows June Colburn (Dreama Walker), a business graduate from Indiana who moves to New York for a Wall Street job that suddenly doesn’t exist thanks to the company’s illegal activities. Instead, she starts working as a barista alongside fellow ex-finance worker Mark (Eric Andre) and moves in with Chloe (Krysten Ritter), an unscrupulous and incredibly fun scam artist. Along the way, June meets Chloe’s best friend James Van Der Beek (playing a fictionalized version of himself), Chloe’s stalker and ex-roommate Robin (Liza Lapira), and Eli (Michael Blaiklock), the pervert neighbor and local health inspector.
A few factors contributed to the show’s downfall. Episodes were aired out of order, which made the show difficult to follow. Then there’s the title, which is overly long and feels a little childish with the censored “bitch.” The first episode includes Chloe getting a teenager drunk and the network is worried about the word “bitch” in the title? Weird, but okay.
For the casual viewer flipping between channels just over a decade ago, Don’t Trust the B was also not marketed particularly well. It was sold as a show about “two single gals living in New York,” which is accurate, but also a pretty boring and incomplete summary. The sitcom proved much more bizarre and entertaining than that tired description promises, but you can’t blame a pop culture consumer in 2012 for not knowing any better.
Since the show’s untimely demise, creator Nahnatchka Khan has gone on to have a prolific career, creating series like Fresh Off the Boat and Young Rock, as well as directing the Ali Wong vehicle Always Be My Maybe. Ritter, of course, went on to star in Jessica Jones and The Defenders. Walker played Connie Stevens in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, but her potential seems to have been slept on since Don’t Trust the B went off air. Andre has paved his own way as a surreal comic genius, making the sitcom a funny normie time capsule for him (even though he gets plenty of room to be his own strange self on the show, nothing reaches the utter absurdity of The Eric Andre Show).
Without further ado, here’s every episode of Don’t Trust the B, ranked from worst to best.
By Clare Martin | April 6, 2023 | 1:54pm
Roughly 11 years ago, Don’t Trust the B— in Apartment 23 debuted on television, and it was unfortunately doomed to have a short run. Nonetheless, the sitcom made an indelible impression on loyal viewers, and has gathered something close to a cult status in the years following its cancellation.
Don’t Trust the B— in Apartment 23 follows June Colburn (Dreama Walker), a business graduate from Indiana who moves to New York for a Wall Street job that suddenly doesn’t exist thanks to the company’s illegal activities. Instead, she starts working as a barista alongside fellow ex-finance worker Mark (Eric Andre) and moves in with Chloe (Krysten Ritter), an unscrupulous and incredibly fun scam artist. Along the way, June meets Chloe’s best friend James Van Der Beek (playing a fictionalized version of himself), Chloe’s stalker and ex-roommate Robin (Liza Lapira), and Eli (Michael Blaiklock), the pervert neighbor and local health inspector.
A few factors contributed to the show’s downfall. Episodes were aired out of order, which made the show difficult to follow. Then there’s the title, which is overly long and feels a little childish with the censored “bitch.” The first episode includes Chloe getting a teenager drunk and the network is worried about the word “bitch” in the title? Weird, but okay.
For the casual viewer flipping between channels just over a decade ago, Don’t Trust the B was also not marketed particularly well. It was sold as a show about “two single gals living in New York,” which is accurate, but also a pretty boring and incomplete summary. The sitcom proved much more bizarre and entertaining than that tired description promises, but you can’t blame a pop culture consumer in 2012 for not knowing any better.
Since the show’s untimely demise, creator Nahnatchka Khan has gone on to have a prolific career, creating series like Fresh Off the Boat and Young Rock, as well as directing the Ali Wong vehicle Always Be My Maybe. Ritter, of course, went on to star in Jessica Jones and The Defenders. Walker played Connie Stevens in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, but her potential seems to have been slept on since Don’t Trust the B went off air. Andre has paved his own way as a surreal comic genius, making the sitcom a funny normie time capsule for him (even though he gets plenty of room to be his own strange self on the show, nothing reaches the utter absurdity of The Eric Andre Show).
Without further ado, here’s every episode of Don’t Trust the B, ranked from worst to best.