Thanks to Hulu, I finally got around to watching a couple episodes of Unhitched today. Let me tell you, I will not make that mistake again, and would hope none of you would either.

Unhitched follows four newly single friends in a Boston that is apparently always sunny and warm, unlike the one I see when I step outside my building every morning. These friends are Jack* "Gator" Gately, played by a forgettable Craig Bierko, Kate*, played by the always perfect Rashida Jones and yet somehow isn't given anything interesting to do, Tommy, played as a vague caricature by Johnny Sneed, and Dr. Freddy Sahgal, played by Shaun Majumder and apparently both the only character with a real job as well as the token ethnic stereotyped comic relief.

None of these characters are interesting or developed beyond a purely superficial level, which is especially frustrating in the case of Rashida Jones since it's painfully obvious that she's too talented to be involved in this excuse of a show. The scenarios are boring and repetitive, the writing is pure rubbish, and they were foolish enough to try and play Atlantic City as a romantic place (having grown up in the area, I know all too well how disgusting and trashy AC actually is). Surprisingly, none of this is what drives me furthest up the wall in the case of Unhitched.

I mentioned before that the show takes place in Boston--or at least, a fictional version of Boston. And in case you ever forget where the show takes place, there are constant exterior shots bombarding you with Boston iconography. As a student who lives in Boston 9 months out of the year, I feel like I've gotten to know my city fairly well, and so it deeply disturbs me when the way my Beantown is portrayed isn't remotely the way it is. For instance, in Unhitched's Boston, the Celtics play when it is warm enough to wear a tank top outside. Pretzel vendors sit on the Public Garden, friends can have drinks at an adorable downtown cafe in Downtown Crossing, the Avalon would book an air guitarist, the Loews Boston Common is small, blue, and badly lit inside, and New England Medical Center would allow bouncers.....ok, maybe the last one would pass, because Chinatown is pretty sketchy....but seriously.

Boston is a safe city, but it is not a city where you leave the front door to your unusually enormous apartment wide open for friends to come and go as they please. When the Celtics are playing, it's also too cold to wear anything less than thick sweaters and long coats. No one has pretzel carts on the Public Garden--it'd be far too tacky (up alongside the Common in REALLY warm weather, ok). Downtown Crossing is a better place to get pickpocketed or accosted by homeless people and/or hippies trying to save the whales than to grab a friendly drink. The Avalon not only wouldn't book an air guitarist, but people in their 30's wouldn't go there anyway. And given the Loews Boston Common is a block away from me, I've seen the inside enough times to know it's far prettier than was given credit for. As for NE Medical Center....well, I just avoid Chinatown. Like I said, sketchy.

I'm not an idiot; I know the show isn't filmed here and can't get some of these things right and that most people don't know the difference. But contrast this depiction of Boston to that in The Departed, it's just embarassing for Unhitched to be so bad, especially since the Farrelly brothers should know Boston at least as well as I do. But compound an inaccurate picture of my favorite city in the world with bad writing and, on most accounts, bad acting, and I'm going to stay far, far away.

*Oh yes, Unhitched, I see what you've done. Don't think for a minute that just because Jack is nicknamed "Gator" that I didn't notice your main characters being named Jack and Kate. Really? REALLY?