I had seen the commercial advertising ABC’s new city mouse/country mouse comedy “Bless This Mess” more times than I could count, by the time it finally premiered last week. And I still couldn’t decide if it looked more funny and entertaining, or cheesy and silly.

Some helpful background information: I grew up on a dairy farm. So you have to understand that if there’s ever a show or movie with cows in it, I’m likely to critique the living daylights out of it (like even more than I do with other stuff!).

As you can see in the commercial/trailer for this show, it is all about people discovering farm life (including dairy cows). So I had to check it out.

Premise of Bless This Mess

 A guy named Mike (played by Dax Shepherd from “Parenthood”) inherits a farm in Nebraska. His wife Rio (Lake Bell – she created the show as well) jumps on board with his idea that the two of them abandon their city lifestyle in New York City and become farmers.

Obviously, nothing about this is simple for them. The house they’ve inherited is decrepit, their neighbors are super weird, their land is bad. Oh, and Rio is… afraid of cow? Okay, sure. 

 This husband and wife have never had a fight before, but now as they embark into these unknown waters, they’re finding themselves stretched in ways they hadn’t expected. 

It’s not a bad start

 The pilot of “Bless This Mess” definitely has its cheesy moments, and its moments of, “Here’s a bunch of plot exposition for you, audience!”

And there are times when it feels a little cliched – like the small town trope of a sheriff who also runs a store and the community theater. 

But it’s an interesting enough fish-out-of water premise of city characters experiencing country life for the first time. 

These two don’t have a clue how to farm, and I’m kind of interested to see where that goes.

Bless This Mess is also pretty clean

 The pilot does have a scene where the husband and wife are in the shower together, but there’s no nudity or sex shown.

There’s also some mild language – and a reference to the prostitutes in Les Meserables, of all things.

Though we’re only one episode in, the tone they set here seems to indicate that this show won’t be too raunchy.

I’ll definitely be giving this one a shot

 Even though this show has its faults, I personally just have to see where they go with it. 

And granted, I’m mostly interested in seeing how grossly they get wrong all the things about farm life (really, they should have hired me as a farming consultant. Maybe they’ll see this when I tag them on Twitter – I can dream…), but it still seems like a pretty decent show.

Bless This Mess airs Tuesdays at 9:30 on ABC.