The Boys are back

So Kates and I eagerly caught the premiere of "My Boys" tonight ...

And it was as good as any of last season's episodes, its inagural season. I laughed out loud constantly ...

It was good to see PJ and Brendan make up after their awkward moment that ended last season (but I'm not counting on Brendan's new girl to stick around for long ... ) ... and the whole bit with Kenny's new girlfriend (Hello! Nicole Sullivan!!) who turned a blind eye to her pregnancy was excellent as well ...

I was lukewarm at best on the show when it started last fall, yet Kates and I tuned in for every episode. Besides, its loaded with references to Chicago and baseball, and it's got Jim Gaffigan -- what more do you need, right !? Still, with last night's premiere, aptly titled "The Promise of a New Season," the show, is clearly showing signs of maturity ...

Kevin McDonough couldn't have put it any better:

Some shows excite viewers and others repel them. In the end, some are created for comfort — something to slip into like a favorite shoe. The comedy “My Boys” (9 p.m., TBS) is just entering its sophomore season, and it already has that old-sneaker feeling. And that is precisely its charm and its limitation.

For the uninitiated, “Boys” stars Jordana Spiro as the pretty Chicago-based sportswriter P.J. Franklin. Most of her pals are guys and all of her habits — creating fantasy-baseball rosters, playing poker and hanging out at dive bars — make her just like one of the boys. At the end of last season, we catch P.J. and her longtime roommate and platonic pal Brendan (Reid Scott) locked in a romantic embrace. Will this change everything? I’ll never tell.

P.J.’s miserably married brother (the affable everyman Jim Gaffigan) has moved to the suburbs, so now he can add commuting to his list of complaints. Her sportswriting rival, Bobby, has been “promoted” to covering NASCAR, but nobody seems to consider it a promotion or NASCAR a sport. Mike (Jamie Kaler) has settled too comfortably into unemployment and the furtive Kenny (Michael Bunin)seems to have found himself a girl (Nicole Sullivan).

OK, the sports-metaphor voiceover is laid on a tad thick. The Chicago tourist attractions seem pretty obvious. And must Brendan wear a Ramones T-shirt in every scene? He’s a rock DJ. We get it!

Much like P.J.’s circle of friends, you’d think you’d want to outgrow “My Boys” and move on to something more sophisticated. But at a time when new sitcoms are so rare and so few are worth watching (if you don’t believe me, check out the excruciating “House of Payne” and the mystifyingly lame “Bill Engvall Show”), “My Boys” stands out. Besides, who wants to get rid of an old shoe when it’s so darned comfortable?