Allison Janney Watch: Mom Will Meet Her Mom on 'Mom'

Mom is back for a third season on Thursday night, and the sitcom has really found its comic groove. Also its tragic groove. Because that’s the way Mom works — its present-day laughs are always threatened by fragile futures and haunted pasts.

The season picks up where last season left off, with Bonnie (Allison Janney, fresh from winning her second Emmy for this show) feeling pretty cocky about her post-relapse sobriety. The series co-created by Chuck Lorre, Gemma Baker, and Eddie Gorodetsky has figured out its strengths — and so early on we get one of those scenes of Bonnie, daughter Christie (Anna Faris) and sober pals Marjorie (Mimi Kennedy), Jill (Jaime Pressly) and Wendy (Beth Hall) sitting around chatting during a post-Alcoholics-Anonymous-meeting diner meal. It’s a simple set-up, but it always accomplishes a few things: The rapid-fire chatter is a good source of jokes; it rings true to the 12-step experience of grabbing a bite after a meeting; and it reaffirms the show’s commitment to showing women relating to each other on a wide variety of levels. I’ve come to think of Mom as Chuck Lorre’s penance for all those years of male-triumphalism during the Charlie Sheen years of Two and a Half Men.

In the season premiere, Bonnie is contacted by her long-lost mother, played by Oscar-winner Ellen Burstyn. Her character gave Bonnie up for adoption when the girl was very young, and the mother’s attempt to makes amends sorely tests everything Bonnie has learned in AA about forgiveness.

As usual in Mom, there are serious moments that bring the studio audience to dead silence. I used to think this was shameless Emmy-baiting on the part of the producers. Now I think it’s shameless Emmy-baiting combined with a sincere attempt to capture, in a sitcom format, what the experience of going through life as a recovering addict is like.

Burstyn is terrific, tremulously emotional without falling apart, and Janney demonstrates why she keeps winning Emmys with a subtle range of reactions to reconnecting with her mom. By the way, did you see her on The Late Show Monday night, acting out Foreigner song lyrics with Colbert?

Next week, Young & Hungry’s Emily Osment joins the cast for a story arc about a young drug addict whom the Mom gang tries to help. Mom seems off to a solid third-season start.

Mom airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on CBS.