… Marriage Ref’: Right show, wrong time, too long
The most-hyped product of the Winter games, “The Marriage Ref” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-14) debuts in its regular spot after a post-Olympics sneak peak last Sunday.
I had rather low expectations for “Ref,” a show where celebrities offer quips and observations about the private peculiarities of perfect strangers. It’s funnier than I anticipated.
On Sunday’s helping, producer/creator Jerry Seinfeld joined actor Alec Baldwin, morning host Kelly Ripa and “Ref” host Tom Papa to evaluate grievances between a husband who wanted to live with a stuffed dead dog and a wife who did not. The trio of experts also evaluated a marital tiff over the introduction of a stripper pole into the master bedroom.
The odd squabbles made for some quick one-liners and amusing patter between the talent. But “Ref” eventually boils down to a combination of “Husbands Do the Darndest Things” and “The Newlywed Game.”
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