Hot in Cleveland, a show for our perilous economic times

Hot in Cleveland

on TVLand may be a throwback to old sitcoms of yore, but as you may have noticed if you caught the new series premiere, it's also rooted very much in the present. In fact, in many ways, the series is a sly tribute to the times we've been living in, often dubbed the Great Recession.

Let the TV reviewers carp or thrill about whether the characters are believable and if the gags work. (Time magazine's James Poniewozik liked Betty White, who plays a supporting role, but otherwise wasn't too crazy about the show. The New York Times Alessandra Stanley concluded, "It's actually kind of fun.") I'll mostly focus on the personal finance aspects of the show.