It’s official. I’ve already gotten to the point in the fall season where when tuning into a new show, I actually hope it’ll suck because I can’t figure out how I’ll squeeze another one into my packed viewing schedule. And can I say right now that I’m incredibly grateful that several of the nets are using dead spots in their sked to rerun things? I can catch up with GOSSIP GIRL Sunday evening, and although I missed the premiere of CHUCK earlier this week, I was able to catch the Saturday night rerun. Let’s hear it for repurposing!
Kudos to all of you who caught my mistake the other day when referencing what tune Addison was shaking her groove thing to on PRIVATE PRACTICE. It was indeed Don’t Feel Like Dancin’, one of my favorite tunes, which makes the error all the more egregious.
Is it just me, or did ABC’s marketing department do a terrible job selling their new offerings? Earlier this week, I told you how much I enjoyed DIRTY SEXY MONEY despite an ad campaign that made me think it would be flatter than a prepubescent teen, and tonight I found the same to be true of BIG SHOTS. Truth be told, I’d forgotten that I’d even set the DVR for it, and upon discovering that I had, pushed “play” with reluctance. And damned if it didn’t turn out to be a thousand times better than I’d expected! Although sold in some reviews as a male version of SEX & THE CITY, this struck me more as a manly take on DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES. Yes, there were some hokey moments and stilted dialogue, but the show had more heart than I could have imagined. Michael Vartan steals the show right out from under top-billed Dylan McDermott (who may single-handedly, or should I say double-cheekedly, bring back the five o’clock shadow), and Jessica Collins — as a mistress who befriends her lover’s wife — somehow combines a modern sensibility with a comedic timing that would have been right at home in classic screwball comedies.
I finally got a chance to catch CHUCK, which everyone and their brother had been raving about to me over the past few days. It was cute… but I’m afraid I didn’t see what all the fuss was about. I think I’d like this a lot better as a half-hour show. I’ll give it another shot, but when it comes time to make hard decisions as to which shows make the final cut for me, this one could easily fall by the wayside.
One that I’m sorry to say won’t be getting another show is MOONLIGHT. Nobody is more disappointed about this development than me, especially since the first, say, two or three minutes had me completely hooked. The opening shots of series star Alex O’Loughlin giving a sly, sexy, witty interview to an unseen reporter were gold. And then his vampiric alter ego, Nick St. John, woke up from a dream and the actual show started. Sophia Myles just did nothing for me, and sadly, the same was true of several supporting players. I wanted to like Jason Dohring (better known as Logan, the rakish beau of VERONICA MARS) but his character — a last-minute addition after the original pilot was completely reworked — felt slapped on and kind of pointless. (Oh, and didn’t it totally look as if Nick was living in Logan’s old hotel room? I swear, it was the same set, slightly revamped.) Whenever St. John used his dark powers, the effects were on the cheesy side, and the pilot’s plot points — from the killer’s identity to the creepy (and not in a good way) connection between the leads — were as predictable as yesterday’s headlines. If this is what the re-worked version of the series looks like, I’d hate to have seen the original.
