The Magic of "Michael & Maddie"
By Robert Gillian, Variety
November 1, 2018
No one thought it would be a hit.
When ABS announced earlier this year that comedian Morris Nelson and model-turned-actress Robyn McNamee would star in a new sitcom called "Michael & Maddie," it was considered a surefire dud. Nelson and McNamee didn't have similar fanbases, insisted the doubters, and they'd surely have no chemistry together. The show was predicted to become one of the fall season's biggest failures.
When the premiere episode of the show dominated the ratings on September 12, the doubters fell silent. The show has finished #1 in its Wednesday-night timeslot for several weeks now, becoming the fall season's biggest smash. It seems ABS executives knew what they were doing after all.
The brainchild of creator and showrunner Aaron Scott-Keith, "Michael & Maddie" stars McNamee as Madison "Maddie" Taylor, a supermodel from Perth, Western Australia left penniless after her crooked agent stole $30 million from her. Her best friend, the sexy black model Olivia Hughes (played by model Dianne French), convinces her brother, the music producer Michael Hughes (Nelson), to let Maddie stay at his Los Angeles house until she can get back on her feet.
In the early episodes, Michael and Maddie are the ultimate odd couple: Michael's party-boy ways and conspicuous consumption ("Lear jets and limousines, baby!" is his motto) clash with Maddie's low-key, eco-conscious lifestyle. Yet a mutual attraction develops between the two-an attraction that their friends assume has already become physical. (A running gag involves Michael and Maddie's pals constantly checking the bedrooms and couches for evidence of recent intercourse.)
Nelson and McNamee have a natural chemistry onscreen-so natural that one can't help wondering if the chemistry also exists offscreen, as has been rumored. Even in their most contentious scenes together, it seems as though Nelson, who bears a strong resemblance to Michael B. Jordan, just can't wait to put his muscular arms around McNamee-and that the auburn-haired, blue-eyed beauty, who resembles a young Elle Macpherson, can't wait to kiss him.
The print advertising for "Michael & Maddie" refers to the lead characters as "just good mates"; the pun is not just a reference to Aussie slang but to the characters' seemingly inevitable bedroom romp. (What else is Scott-Keith leading to with the constant jokes about how Michael and Maddie have destroyed their respective ability to get dates because of their living arrangement, as well as the bits about Michael always looking a little too long at Maddie's swimsuit photos, or running into her when she's just coming out of the shower?) Scott-Keith can't possibly string things out too long before Michael and Maddie end up rolling around on one of those beds or couches.
