Imaginary Mary

Winning actors and decent gags give a bit of lift to this sweet-natured family comedy, but the "adult with an imaginary friend" storyline hasn't aged well. Movies like Harvey and Drop Dead Fred now seem like relics from a time when we didn't understand mental illness; now viewers may be weirded out instead of charmed by a woman who's seeing and hearing a fuzzy CGI creature (voiced by Rachel Dratch). Nonetheless, Imaginary Mary isn't without its charms. Elfman, given a character less daft to play than in her 1990s breakthrough Dharma & Greg, is smart and sympathetic, a woman who realizes Mary is voicing her emotional terror. She and Ben have real chemistry, too, and warm relationships with each of Ben's kids, particularly the straining-to-be-cool Adam.

But it's hard to see where the show will go, saddled as it is with an animated id. If Mary is Alice's needy and scared self, does that mean as Alice's need for her evaporates that Mary will, what, die? But if she doesn't, won't the idea of a character who sees and hears things that aren't there grow increasingly odd and unsettling? For a show clearly straining for ABC-family-comedy appeal, Mary's presence is a big problem.