I started to watch Hot Cleveland shortly after the death of Betty White. I didn’t really have access to TV Land when it was on, but it’s part of the Paramount+ family of shows now. I had heard it was a really funny show, and it definitely is.

The show starts off with three friends that live in Los Angeles, California. They all decide to fly to Paris together but the plane has a problem and has to make an emergency landing in Cleveland, Ohio.

While Melanie, Joy, and Victoria don’t like Cleveland, Ohio at first sight; they start quickly warm up to it. Especially as the men of Cleveland, Ohio look at them like 20 somethings, which doesn’t happen back in LA.

So they all agree to live in Cleveland, Ohio and rent a house with an attendant named Elka Ostrovsky. She’s very rude and quite hilarious.

I will say out of the main four characters, I liked Victoria the least. She’s not really attractive, she’s not very smart, and her personality isn’t the best either. If the show had a weakest link, it would definitely be Victoria Chase.

The character I liked the most was Melanie. While all the women make rather strange choices during the seasons about life and men, she definitely seemed to be the smartest of the group.

Joy was an all right character but she definitely had the worst taste in men. Elka’s insults against her were actually pretty darn good.

In many ways Hot in Cleveland is very much like Golden Girls 2.0. Betty White’s character is completely different and so are the other three compared to Bea Arthur, Estelle Getty, and Rue McClanahan. If I had to choose between Hot in Cleveland and The Golden Girls, I would actually choose Hot in Cleveland. Both of the sitcoms start off strong but they do start to fizzle out during the last two seasons. But at least, they were smart enough to stop the train before it got bad.