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Monday, Nov 23, 2009
Most surprising of all, leads Jennifer Finnigan and Josh Cooke aren't anything like the typical guy-girl sitcom leads of recent memory. In other words, they're funny. Finnigan has a serious knack for juicing the comedy out of her lines, and I don't mean in that Jenna Elfman ("Dharma & Greg") super-duper cutie way, either. And Cooke is actually convincing as an obsessive freak, and has a nice streak of self-deprecating, Ben-Stillery allure.
After just two airings, the ratings for "Committed" are already respectable, and that's not really surprising, considering the utter lack of promising-looking new sitcoms floating around these days -- you know something is amiss in the universe when "Two and a Half Men" is a hit.
More acting actors, acting about acting
Achtung! More acting ahead, and I don't mean the typical kind with scripts. I mean the kind that George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh keep tossing at the wall with their production company, Figure 8 -- you know, with the people playing themselves, but not really, and the improvised scenes where people try to act a little bit like they'd normally act, but different? I mean, they're acting, I think. Remember "P Street"? Or was it "O Street"?
Best of all, this latest show, HBO's "Unscripted" (Sundays at 10 p.m.), is about struggling actors! Hurray! What demographic in the known universe do we have less information about than that of the struggling actor?
See, Clooney and Soderbergh recognize that we're absolutely longing to see struggling actors ... struggle. They take demeaning jobs. Their self-esteem suffers. Stars talk down to them. They take irritating acting classes.
But after about 20 minutes of watching pretty girls and boys read for soap opera roles, or call their parents to ask for another loan, you're likely to wonder about plumbers. What are their lives like? And what about truck drivers? What do they talk about? What keeps accountants up at night?
Sadly, we'll never know, because here in The Southland! we care about little more than filming people here in The Southland! improvising lines that are sort of like something they might actually say here in The Southland! -- but different.
It's not a terrible show. I just wish it were about archaeologists.
Medium rare
And, since there aren't nearly enough shows about young women with special powers, here's "Medium" (Mondays at 10 p.m. on NBC) starring Patricia Arquette. As tough as it is to watch another super-powered crime solver in action, the first episode of this show turned out to be pretty compelling. The show is based on the real story of Allison Dubois, an Arizona mother who, according to CNN.com, was "studying law when she discovered her psychic abilities could provide research in solving murders and missing-person cases."
It's not hard to see why special powers are so compelling to us these days, when they're basically reported as fact by the media -- not that the show isn't convincing on the matter. While Arquette is oddly robotic in many of her scenes, she still seems to make sense in the role. You can already imagine that her monotone will evolve into one of the charms of the show, like Jerry Seinfeld smiling when he's angry.
My psychic powers tell me this show will be a hit, especially if they ditch the frumpy blazers and start playing up Patricia Arquette's body for the high-speed carnival ride that it is.
Onward and downward
In summary:
In: Fried shrimp. Three-syllable titles. Allusions to "Seinfeld." Archaeologists. Psychic powers. Bodies that double as carnival rides.
Out: Virginity. Actors acting about acting. Cruel and punishing gods.
Speaking of cruel and punishing gods, I'd love to chat about the new season of "Carnivale" or ponder the first episode of "24" (look for a review of the first two episodes this Tuesday), but this rusty carnival ride needs to shut down for the day.
Next week: The freaks of "Carnivale" reconvene for more depressing gore! Plus: Jon and Kristy of "The Amazing Race" continue to inspire awe, while Jonathan continues to shop for a good old-fashioned beatdown!
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