`KATH & KIM'

The squinchy face is likely to be your own when it comes to the inexplicable Kath & Kim, a kind of eugenics lesson about the horrific consequences of allowing Valley Girls to breed. Molly Shannon (Saturday Night Live) and Selma Blair (Hellboy 2) play mother-and-daughter mall rats who are reunited when Blair's marriage of six weeks disintegrates. (''I didn't sign up for cooking dinner or being interested in how anyone's day was.'') Shannon, whose budding romance with a dimwit sandwich maker is disrupted, is not amused.

It's a trait she'll share with most of the audience. Kath, Kim and their various menfolk (John Michael Higgins of Best in Show and Mikey Day of MTV's Short Circutz) are all vacuous, trashy losers, and the jokes about overstuffed butts in thongs and spandex quickly wear thin. Kath & Kim originated in Australia, which shares the British affection for slobby class humor, but here it falls about as flat as food-court champagne.

`TESTEES'

Anyway, if you want slobby, why bother with pallid imitations when you've got Testees, the Citizen Kane of the vulgar and slovenly? Because FX is a cable network, Testees probably shouldn't be considered part of the fall season, but let's be fair -- it's as lousy as anything the broadcast nets have come up with.

Created by Kenny Hotz, a former South Park writer, Testees stars Canadian comedians Steve Markle and Jeff Kassel as Peter and Ron, a couple of slackers who make their living as test subjects for experimental drugs. Peter's description of the side effects of one such test -- ''swollen feet, morning sickness, constipation, strange food cravings, hot flashes, mood swings, sore ass'' -- are pretty much a catalog of the show's categories of humor. The pilot episode is nothing but a 22-minute setup for a fart joke.

I've stuck with FX through male rapes and cops grilling the faces of suspects on The Shield, through self-circumcisions on Nip/Tuck and castrations on Sons Of Anarchy, even through catastrophic enema accidents on Starved. But this is where I get off, guys.

Glenn Garvin is The Miami Herald's televsion critic.

Join the discussion

Note: If this is your first time using our NEW commenting system, you will have to LOG OUT and then LOG BACK IN.

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@