TV review: 'Saint George' is a hellishly bad comedy

FX's weird case of schizophrenia has cropped up again in George Lopez's new sitcom "Saint George."

(No, it has nothing to do with the city in southern Utah.)

The cable channel has built a much-deserved reputation for quality programming. For the most part, even the shows that don't work are laudable because they strive to be something better than the TV norm.

And then there's Charlie Sheen's dreadful "Anger Management," which was an anomaly. Until Thursday night at 10 p.m., when FX scrapes the bottom of the barrel with the equally dreadful "Saint George."

Here are the three things you need to know about it:

1. It's a traditional, multi-camera sitcom taped in front of a live audience. Lopez stars as George, a night-school teacher/entrepreneur who markets a successful energy drink. (Weird.)

The audience laughs a lot, despite the fact that nothing is funny.

2. "Saint George" is incredibly unoriginal. It's a retread of bad sitcoms, including Lopez's self-titled 2002-2007 sitcom.

How unoriginal is this? For his second sitcom in a row, the character of George's mother is a mean-spirited shrew who is intentionally cruel to him. In the new show, she (Olga Merediz) says, "Can I tell you something and you won't get mad? You're fat, boring and stupid." And then she mocks him for masturbating.

That's supposed to be funny.

3. "Saint George" is beyond crude. The premiere features George's uncle (Danny Trejo), shoving a cell phone down his own pants, taking a picture of his genitals and then texting that picture, by way of teaching George how to start dating again.

Really.

And then there's George's encounter with his crude, man-hungry boss — the night school principal, Concepcion (Diana Maria Riva). Here's an example of the less-crude, more-printable part of that:

"In case you're wondering, I'm wearing a thong," Concepcion says.

He: "I was kind of guessing, big girl panties," George replies.

"I know you've undressed me with your eyes," Concepcion says.

"Right now I'm thinking of sewing them shut," George replies.

I felt the same way trying to sit through the episode.

It's incredibly bad.