Imaginary Mary

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Imaginary Mary
Behold, the show that is essentially Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends but live action and with only 1 imaginary friend.
Genre: Fantasy Sitcom Comedy Running Time: 22 minutes Country: United States Release Date: March 29 - May 30, 2017 Network(s): ABC Created by: David Guarascio Productions Distributed by: Sony Pictures Television Starring: Jenna Elfman Stephen Schneider Nicholas Coombe Matreya Scarrwener Erica Tremblay Rachel Dratch Seasons: 1 Episodes: 9

Imaginary Mary is an American live-action/animated fantasy sitcom television series created by Adam F. Goldberg, David Guarascio and Patrick Osborne that aired on ABC from March 29 to May 30, 2017. The series is executive produced by the creators and was greenlighted to series order on May 12, 2016. A first look-trailer was released on the same day. ABC reduced the number of episodes from thirteen to nine on September 28, 2016.

On May 11, 2017, the series was cancelled after one season.

Plot

The series follows Alice when an imaginary puppet being from her childhood named Mary reappears when she is now a single public relations executive falling in love with a single father of three children. Mary hopes to guide or misguide her.

Why It Isn't Imaginary

1. Mary, Alice's imaginary friend gives Alice bad advice, such as to run from Ben, which isn’t going to happen. She is also unfunny and ill-advised.
2. The show feels like it's made up of pieces from several different jigsaw puzzles, the tabs jammed into the blanks with zero regard for compatibility.
3. The show also feels most often like a family sitcom that is haunted by its own flawed idea, personified by a mostly cute but sometimes terrifying white-and-blue creature who usually has really bad advice. It also demonstrates how a screwy concept can defeat a charming cast.
4. Elfman could've used more help from the writers, who present Alice as stressing out over child care and behaving in bewildering ways.
5. Mary's old face was ugly and awful.
6. "Sleep Over" ended the show atrociously, even though it wasn't meant to be a series finale.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Good acting, as the main cast is better than Mary.
2. The CGI animation for Mary is okay.
3. At least Adam F. Goldberg tried to make something new.
4. At least Mary's design was improved to make her look much better than her original design.

Reception

The series received a generally negative response from critics. On review aggregator site Metacritic, Imaginary Mary has a score of 39 out of 100 based on 13 critics indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". On Rotten Tomatoes, the show has a 27% approval rating, based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 3.9/10. The site's critical consensus: "Imaginary Mary's appealing cast is canceled out by uninspired material and a ridiculous premise whose deficiencies are compounded by an unfunny, ill-advised CGI creature."