Mom, Season One Recap and Reaction

I thought this show would be better than it turned out to be.
Luckily, the finale was brilliant and properly the best episode of the season.
Christy (Anna Faris) celebrated her first year of sobriety and it wasn't easy. First, her crazy, neglectful mother, Bonnie (Allison Janney) reentered her life and those two certainly had their ups and downs, including dealing with Bonnie's lies, such as hiding substantial amounts of money from her daughter along with the true identity of Christy's father. Christy's father, Alvin (Kevin Pollak) is actually alive, owns a used car dealership, is married with two sons. He is trying to make amends for his despicable actions more than three decades ago, when he left Bonnie at the hospital with baby Christy. Bonnie still hates him, though slowly opens up after Alvin has a heart attack. She still cares about him, after all these years, even though she does try to kill him and then promptly makes out with him.
Christy's daughter, Violet (Sadie Calvano) is pregnant by her boyfriend, Luke (Spencer Daniels), who is none too bright. This is the plot line I started out hating, I mean, seriously, another pregnant teenager on a sitcom? But then, in a plot twist that no one, not even the characters saw coming, Violet opts to give the baby up for adoption and even finds a nice couple willing to adopt. Then, during labor, while in a ton of pain, she nearly changes her mind, fortunately, in a tearful, humorless moment, Violet holds her newborn daughter and wishes her all the best the world has to offer. Luke, by the way, misses the whole birth because he can't stand the sounds and this is only after he can't find her room for he is high as a kite and tells the adopted parents to name the baby Smokey, whether it is a boy or a girl. Yikes.
Those are the main two plot lines, but there are others. A sober friend of Christy and Bonnie, Regina (the always lovely Octavia Spencer) is arrested and sentenced to time in prison. Another friend, Marjorie (Mimi Kennedy) deals with cancer. While taking care of her, Christy learns that she is horribly allergic to cats and Marjorie is way too lonely for her own good.
Christy also has two relationships. Adam (Justin Long) is kind and sweet and nonjudgmental. But it doesn't work out and that makes me sad. Her relationship with David (Nick Zano), an attractive and intelligent fireman, goes much further but the man is always drinking and has bongs. However, Christy doesn't end the relationship until she finds out that he is not faithful to her.
Bonnie briefly dates Chef Rudy (French Stewart), from the restaurant where Christy works, but that doesn't last either.
Now, that leads us to a main problem, Christy's place of work. She works at a fine restaurant, and though two of her fellow employees, Gabriel (Nate Corddry), her boss and former married lover and Chef Rudy, receive star billing, but rarely appear. There is no reason they should receive star billing, but at least Chef Rudy is an interesting character. He is bisexual and will sleep with an overweight man for a good restaurant review and stores pot in the restaurant's giant, oversized freezer. Gabriel is boring and one-dimensional.
The last main character is Baxter (Matt L. Jones), Christy's ex husband and father of her son, Roscoe (Blake Garret Rosenthal). Baxter is a complete dead beat, living out of his car, and buying his nine-year-old son a ticket to a rated-R movie which Christy won't let him see. In the finale, he finally admits that he is sick of his horrible lifestyle but doesn't quite know how to change. Roscoe can't even come up with many reasons why Baxter should value his life, then they both go for ice cream, Baxter asking his son if he has any money.
Overall, this show wasn't that funny and I hate laugh tracks which are included for this show. The acting was good, but the writing wasn't spectacular by any means. Luckily, Janney is brilliant and makes almost anything enjoyable, despite her extremely unlikable character. Faris and Calvano are also great. The others aren't bad, but their characters aren't as well developed as the three women. Luckily, the many guest stars are great, really great.
Though I will continue to watch the show, it needs to improve and narrow down the cast somehow and create more character development for the secondary characters. Finale: A-, Season: B-