Patricia Richardson- the only reason to watch Home Improvement

The coy look, the wrench held at an angle, or the button up blouse? Personally her neckline intrigues me.

It's easy to hate. Hate is a lazy way of thinking. It sure does save time though. Because some things are just asking to be hated. Where I land with this hatred: Home Improvement in general. Home Improvement is a sitcom based on the stand up of Tim Allen. The stand up of Tim Allen is based on furthering a stereotype of men who act like Tim Allen. The sitcom saw Tim as a tool show host. This premise was deemed interesting because no had done it before. Now, let me remind you that Tim Allen isn't a strong actor, even given his own character to develop out of himself in a show that should be playing to his strengths. Instead, we see Tim playing the learns a lesson husband who hurts himself and gets advice from a neighbor who they give credit to by not showing his face. He has a sidekick who has a catchline and 3 children to spread out life lessons and wise cracks for, just to make it non repetitive. Home Improvement was a yikes of a show that lasted so long because it was basically Larry the Cable Guy but not so abrupt. Thank god for the not so abrupt, which was marvelously played by Patricia Richardson as Jill Taylor. Jill Taylor is an impossible role to play: always yelling, or wanting to further herself through education, or working a new hair cut into the show. This should've been just any other wife role, played aimlessly and lifeless, but no... but no and damnit. Patricia Richardson took Home Improvement to a higher level, where the slapstick and stupid jokes felt more slappier and stupider because they were anchored down by a realism sparked by the acting of the matriarch, the one who shows us we're to be frustrated with this world of Home Improvement. She shows us how to tolerate Tim and to somehow look past it because he's kind of funny sometimes in a drunk kind of way. She showed us how what Al meant to the family and that Wilson should be a reliable source of information. She was the parent on the show. She was the basement shelter in what is one shit storm of 90s ABC sitcoms not on Friday Nights. So, I ask of you dear reader, if ever find yourself watching Home Improvement re-runs on TBS, please feel for Jill. Watch her. She is the only adult on this show that is a real representation of a person. From her point of view, the show is tolerable. From our point of view, the show is America's Funniest Home Videos with a plot. Patricia Richardson, you earned those 4 emmy nominations. You also earned the right to be something better than Jill Taylor status. Please go out there and let your light shine.