NBC’s Kath & Kim will premiere tonight at 8:30 pm EST. And though the new series featuring Selma Blair and Molly Shannon (a comedy duo who should be perfect together) is being touted as a “sitcom following a dysfunctional mother-daughter duo and their adventures in middle-class suburbia,” the reviewers are taking a decidedly less lighthearted stance. The Boston Herald called the series a “problem child,” while zap2it said the first two episodes were “pretty laugh-free.” This is not the sort of response a comedy featuring two such gifted actresses should receive.

The series was a huge hit in Australia, which pretty well guaranteed it would find a home on American shores eventually. NBC picked up the remake baton and cast Blair as Shannon’s spoiled, thick-as-a-brick daughter (though the two are actually separated by only eight years in age). Molly Shannon plays Kath, spandex-wearing and man-hunting, to Blair’s Kim, a celebrity-obsessed, would-be trophy wife.

Kim lands on her mother’s doorstep, leaving her husband of only six weeks because he expected her to “do things.” You know, like cook and clean occasionally. In the LA Times, the series is called on the carpet for “abusing its terrific cast,” who don’t seem to fit their roles. (And it’s no wonder - Blair, 36, plays a 20-something mall-crawler who wears midriff-bearing crop tops. Forgive me for being blunt, but the cute Blair days of Cruel Intentions are over - O-V-U-R).

The biggest problem for many reviewers seems to be a central question: does the show know what it’s lampooning? And, if so, could it please clue us in? Check out the trailer before you make the commitment to watch tonight: