The best television shows, especially sitcoms, blend the perfect mix of actor with character with great writing. Friends, Seinfeld, Cheers, Everybody Loves Raymond provided most of it's actors with their best character to date, and story lines and dialogue that won almost all of them award after awards.
I want to like The Millers, I would like to actually love it. It's cast is incredible, but sadly stuck in one note premise with lazy, and most criminally, obvious writing that made the show sort of tired after just the first few scenes. Most of the cast has done far better, Jayma Mays on Glee, Will Arnett on Arrested Development and Margo Martindale in... well just about anything but this. Martindale comes off both the best and the worst. If she were in a play, or making a guest appearance on a sitcom, her portrayal of Carol Miller would be spot on. As a regular character however, she is too much, obnoxious and loud with none of the subtleties, nuances and wit displayed by Doris Roberts, the closest character to compare her to, Raymond's Marie Barone.
Martindale is a great actress, the issue is the direction and writing that her as the shows center, the Archie Bunker, in this case without a contrasting Edith to balance it out. I know this show will be popular, and most likely a ratings winner, but that doesn't mean it will turn out to be very good (Two And A Half Men, 2 Broke Girls anyone?) CBS was once the home of some of televisions most iconic sitcoms, but those days are long gone. This sit-com can be saved, but it will take the writers and producers digging deeper, going beyond just over the top situations, having the characters scream at each other and all those fart jokes. Time will tell
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