(FORTUNE Magazine) – Action Fox: Thursdays, 9:30 p.m. EST

Action has gotten a lot of flap for its use of sex and bleeped-over obscenities. What critics haven't told you is that it's one of the best new shows of the fall, precisely because it breaks all sitcom rules. The protagonists--a megalomaniac movie producer (played by Saturday Night Live alum and Jerry Maguire co-star Jay Mohr) and a washed-up-child-star-turned-prostitute (indie film queen Illeana Douglas)--are unlikable but textured characters.

The show comes without a laugh track, but since the writing is so sharp and funny, even viewers who normally need specific aural cues to know when to laugh will get the jokes. But the humor isn't for everyone. The best gags in the pilot involve a Cobb salad dressed with a certain bodily fluid, the sexual arousal of Keanu Reeves, and a whacked--but original--O.J. Simpson barb.

--H.G.

JOSEPH NOCERA is a FORTUNE editor-at-large; CHRIS NASHAWATY is a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly; HENRY GOLDBLATT and MARC GUNTHER are writer and senior writer, respectively, at FORTUNE.