'Bad Love' Indeed Gives Love a Bad Name

Michael and Valerie are in love. The type of love that means keeping kittens in boxes with no air holes and creating drinking games called “Would You Abort Your Baby If…”. So, you know, highly dysfunctional love. The kind of love Bon Jovi was talking about.

Created and independently produced by graduates of the Dodge College of Film at Chapman University in Orange, CA, Bad Love compares itself to such traditional television sitcoms such as Mad About You

and Dharma and Greg but with the twist of having their main characters be completely dysfunctional and unlikable. They are unapologetic yuppies who “decided to open up a t-shirt company … to make fun of minorities in a clever way.” The t-shirt slogans of their various creations serve as titles for each episode.

The show stars Michael Ashley and Valerie Shepherd who are also the screenwriting team that wrote the series. Oh, and they are a real life couple. Which begs the question: does that onscreen chemistry apply only to the hot and heavy make-out scenes that conclude each episode or have they ever really told their friends fiancee they should “totally go to Iraq”?

Bad Love is directed by Tom Flynn, whose short film, Soulmates recently won a Student BAFTA at the Student BAFTA/LA Awards. It co-stars Matt Hirschfeld and Flynn and Mandy Flynn. The show’s original score is composed by Evan Howard, a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music with a Masters Degree in Jazz Performance.

You can catch the trailer and first two episodes of Bad Love, along with character bios and a blog at the show’s website. The episode descriptions are fairly spoiler-y, so if you want to go into the episodes fresh, try to keep your eyes from meandering over to read them.