Leanne is a new sitcom. I’ve been watching Leanne Morgan’s stand up on social media for some time. When I scroll by her standing there with a microphone in her hand, I always turn up the sound and listen. She’s funny. She talks about getting older, menopause, gaining weight, and life as an older woman.

Now there’s Leanne, a new sitcom with Leanne Morgan at the center. I knew what to expect from her way with a punch line and I wasn’t disappointed. The series takes advantage of her humor, her folksy attitude, and her Southern accent to create a family story with quirky characters and some good laughs.

Leanne Morgan is new to acting, it’s pretty obvious. But she’s surrounded by seasoned actors who know their way around a sitcom. To her credit, she gets stronger performance-wise as the episodes progress.

Ryan Stiles plays her husband who cheated after 33 years. His betrayal is exposed in the first episode. The remainder of the season is Leanne dealing with the fallout and a divorce. Almost the minute hubby’s out the door, Leanne starts dating an FBI agent (Tim Daly). Leanne’s sister Carol (Kristen Johnston) is by her side in almost every scene.

Her grown children are Tyler (Graham Rogers), a new father with a pregnant wife, and Josie (Hannah Pilkes) who is a sort of post-COVID hippy. Blake Clark plays her father and Celia Weston plays her mother. Mary (Jayma Mays) as an uptight widowed neighbor is the only other regular in the cast.

It seemed like Netflix was of two minds with funding this one. There were an astonishing 16 episodes. There were proven comic actors in the cast. But it felt like they were going cheap on restricting the secondary characters to only a few episodes and scrimping on sets and locations. Maybe they are waiting to see if it hits and plan to beef things up for a second season. It felt similar to Reba, the long running sitcom with Reba McEntire, because it was set in a family home and told Southern-tinged family stories.

Speaking as an older woman who appreciates Leanne Morgan’s stand up jokes, I thought her persona transferred into a sitcom well. There were some good laughs. I hope the show is a hit.

It’s streaming on Netflix. The women directors were Nikki Lorre, Kristy Cecil, and Rhiannona O’Harra.