"Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23" stars James Van...

"Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23" stars James Van Der Beek as James Van Der Beek, Krysten Ritter as Chloe and Dreama Walker as June. Credit: ABC

THE SHOW "Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23"

WHEN | WHERE Season premiere 9:30 p.m. Tuesday on ABC/7

WHAT IT'S ABOUT First, a quick refresher course as the second season gets under way: Mostly normal June (Dreama Walker) moves in with mostly abnormal Chloe (Krysten Ritter), who has a friend whose celebrity status has faded somewhat from his "Dawson's Creek" days: James Van Der Beek. Tuesday night, James is prevailed upon to join the rest of the "Dawson's" cast for a 10-year reunion show. He equivocates, and has some other celebrity encounters (Busy Philipps, Frankie Muniz, Mark-Paul Gosselaar), which gives him some perspective on this anniversary business.

MY SAY "Apartment 23" was and absolutely remains a huge heaping helping of Acquired Taste. Either you like this quirky oddball that is often a variation on just one theme -- Van Der Beek's post-"Dawson" existential crisis -- or you scratch your head and move on. But what worked so well last season is working in this episode -- mostly a fearless approach to the material. You get the sense -- or you certainly get it with Ritter -- that the show will do anything for a laugh, including laughing at itself. Absurdity is relished for absurdity's sake. No one, nothing, is sacred.

BOTTOM LINE Still funny and still an acquired taste.

GRADE B+

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