When the two shows premiered, Bad Judge was an unholy mismashed mess, while A to Z was a mildly promising- if problematic- and unobtrusive rom-com.

That's not so much the way it is anymore.

A to Z has become one of the worst shows I'm watching for this blog (currently second only to the suddenly improving Manhattan Love Story), as this week's episode was the worst yet. While the cast remains strong- if poorly deployed- the show's saving grace in previous weeks (namely surprisingly sharp joke writing) was nowhere to be found. Instead, we got a drudgy, preachy funeral episode that sold out more of its cast than not without bothering to be funny about it. The show's usual problems are here, too, as show runner Ben Queen remains somewhat confused about what "women" are and paints the incredibly talented Cristin Miloti and Lenora Crichlow as a pair of desperately co-dependent frauds who cannot function in life without a man there to hold their hands and lady-feelings.

Miloti's Zelda in this episode is only remotely perturbed when Andrew crashes her aunt's funeral, but that's at least dealt with and acknowledged; the real problem arises at the end of the episode, where they have their special tender love scene where she tells him how great he is for sticking around after seeing her cry… you know, on the day of a loved one's funeral. Because I guess most men would go running for the hills, and Zelda's so needy and co-dependent that a guy who doesn't instantly flee a crying woman at a funeral is pretty much her dream date. Granted, this is more an attempted sweetness that misfires than a conscious indictment of the lead female's gender politics, but coming on the heels of the second (out of three) episode in which Zelda kisses Andrew as a thank-you for stalking her, it paints an incredibly depressing psychological portrait of a woman who's only requirement in a man is that he's present: even and especially when she doesn't want him to be. Ick. Ick ick ick.

Crichlow doesn't fair much better in the B-plot, wherein she attempts to use her best friend's loved one's funeral to pick up a hot guy. Elsewhere, Christina Kirk's "Big Bird" desperately and immediately falls for a transparent honey trap (twice) from a man who she knows for a fact is in the building to honey trap people, because, I guess, he's a man and women just really need one of those, or something.

For all the terrible gender stuff, though, the biggest problems with this episode are more mundane: it isn't very funny, and it doesn't make us feel anything. If you're going to go for a funeral episode on a comedy, there's a way to do it gracefully (Scrubs went to that well early and often, How I Met Your Mother had a highly acclaimed funeral episode that I wasn't quite as high on, and Go On was basically one long funeral episode for its entire runtime….and then, of course, there's the NewsRadio masterpiece "Rat Funeral") but that necessitates your audience caring about, if not the person who died (in this case a brand new character we only see in a brief flashback), then the grief of the people who lost them. Since Zelda's grief is treated solely as a way for her boyfriend to prove what a great guy he is (ug), and even her family members seem largely indifferent to the passing, there's no emotional weight or resonance to death whatsoever, and it just feels cheap.

Worst of all, though, is that the episode just isn't funny. A to Z has been a frustrating show from day one, but it was an occasionally very clever frustrating show with a mostly charming cast. There's no real laughs in this episode- at least for me- and almost no charm, as even the best of the cast (Crichlow) are put into completely untenable situations. Total misfire here, and if A to Z continues downy his path it may actually get worse than even Manhattan Love Story, parituclary if MLS keeps baby-stepping towards legitimacy.

Bad Judge, on the other hand, has gone in the opposite direction, turning in a very funny episode that knows exactly who its characters are. Frankly, this level of competence is shocking after the Hindenberg of a pilot, but it's where we are. Tedward and Rebecca have a natural chemistry that makes us feel like they've known each other for years; an easy, comfortable rapport that you usually don't see this early in a show's run. TV critic legend Alan Sepinwall is fond of saying that some sitcoms can get away without being terribly funny all the time if they can just make you enjoy hanging out with the characters, and while Bad Judge is quite funny this week, Tedward and Rebecca are hitting a point where I'd probably still hang out with them if it wasn't. The rest of the cast is coming into focus a bit slower, but they're certainly coming into focus, from naked Judy to Gary Boyd and his Swiffer-knife. Bad Judge at this point feels a lot less like a freshman sitcom finding its legs than it does a sophomore that found itself over the off season; it knows what it wants to do and how to do it.

That said, it's never going to be a masterpiece, nor is it likely to live up to the bite its premise and pedigree (named to conjure Bad Santa and Bad Teacher) would suggest; Rebecca's a mess, but she isn't a jerk. But maybe that's ok; other shows have survived worse names (Cougar Town, Parks and Recreation) and as long as the show keeps making me laugh, I can forgive a little false advertising. Bad Judge in its current form is something of a pigeonrat of other, better sitcoms- with Happy Endings style pile-ons, Scrubsian quasi-moralism, and a working environment of vicious antagonism tempered by deeply buried mutual respect that conjures shows like NewsRadio, Norm, and 30 Rock- but right now it's working really well, and the parts are improbably fitting together.

A lot of that is thanks to Kate Walsh, who makes a character that has no business working into an absolute blast. Rebecca might be the best new sitcom lead this season (at least out of the shows I'm watching), and that's in spite of- and yet, perhaps because of- being asked to be ten different things all at once. She's a loyal friend who's reckless and often selfish, she's a judge who doesn't take the law or her job particularly seriously, but fights for justice tooth-and-claw when she bothers to show up, and she's a deeply insecure strong independent woman. She's also extremely funny. Tone Loc, Ryan Hansen, and the rest are an above-average supporting crew, but they're all playing off of her; put an even slightly lesser comic actress in this part- even a very good one, like Maura Tierney or Judy Reyes, to borrow some cast members from the list of influences above- and it all falls apart.

This is running long, and probably should have been two separate reviews, but Bad Judge's joke writers need a quick shout-out for almost everything involving the perp-of-the-week's attempts to defend himself and for every crack made at Judge Hernandez's vacation attire. Very funny stuff.

Whether or not Bad Judge can maintain this balancing act remains to be seen, and even if it does, it's probably destined for cancellation anyways on account of 1) a terrible pilot, 2) a misleading title, and 3) being on Fox, but I'm certainly enjoying the ride while it lasts. Along with Selfie, Bad Judge is the one show I can really recommend this week (though Marry Me was pretty close), and I'm optimistic I'll be able to keep recommending it as the season progresses; it knows what it is, it knows what it does well, and it no longer has much interest in being or doing anything else. There's a lot of second and third (or in the case of Parks and Rec, seventh) year sitcoms that can't say the same thing. Fingers crossed Bad Judge lives as long as they do.