The void left behind by Sex And The City
Sometimes I know something about a show when I sit down to watch it and sometimes I know nothing, this was the case with Love Bites and that feeling of not knowing continued through most of the episode. The script starts with bunch of friends on a Hens night, but before they get too rowdy the bride to be falls asleep and the only one who still wants to go clubbing is the pregnant Annie, her friend Cassie is tired of being upstaged by her friends belly so tells a guy she is a virgin. The story then follows the ramifications of this lie and how Cassie and the guy try to figure out their next move to result in sexual bliss. At this point I start to wonder what happened to the bride to be and the pregnant Annie as there are no cutaways from Cassie’s story which comes to close when she admits the lie. The next thing I see is a new character talking about how he and his wife can sleep with a celebrity of their choice if the opportunity arises. Of course the opportunity does arise and the results are much less funny than that episode of Friends where Ross gets his chance with Isabella Rossellini. Then the story shifts again and I release that this is not one episode but several little stories on the theme of love, kind of like Creepshow
Apparently this was not the format of the show Cindy Chupack had originally intended, it was suppose to me a regular show exploring love and relationships of singletons Annie and Cassie, but after cast members left for various reasons, a pilot was made and rejected, Cindy left as showrunner, the whole thing was retooled into the format now which finally premièred 8 months late. The show was watch-able, if predictable with no real ongoing drama, it is simple watch out the corner of your eye while you doing something else. It doesn’t challenge expectations and mostly left me wondering about more interesting characters and stories that were discarded along the way. Instead of giving us rich interesting character development we have a series of C stories, the plots that were not quite interesting or fleshed out enough to carry a full episode.
Officially the show has not been cancelled but viewing figures have been dipping every week and it looks likely that the original 9 episodes made may also be the last.
Created / Written by: Cindy Chupack
Directed by: Marc Buckland
Starring: Becki Newton, Greg Grunberg, Constance Zimmer
Date premièred: 2nd June 2011 (NBC)
UK Details: TBC
. MTV have been waggling some large toes in the drama pond, earlier this year they had their take on 
and next month they have Death Valley, this is quite a departure from music videos and “reality” shows that have made up the bulk of the channels output up till now. So is Teen Wolf an exciting and invigorating take on a nostalgia inducing classic or a derivative supernatural teen angst show riding on the coat tails of 
?
than Teen Wolf, this is a darker show with most scenes shot a night or on grey days. Tyler Posey who plays 16 year old Scott is happy to show off his sculpted torso, while love interest Alison, played by Crystal Reed, spends scenes sans bra. Darker, sexier and derivative – yes , this is MTV making a quick buck off the recent trend for vampires and werewolfs by grabbing the rights to the title of an 80s comedy and then throwing everything else away. Looking for something that stands out in the show is hard, this is might as well be any one of dozens of teen angst dramas, but with a werewolf thrown in. You have seen all the characters before, the jock, the Billy everyteen, the new girl who has moved from school to school, the comedy sidekick etc…
clone 
coming to an end last year and 
on its climatic final series, the field has been thrown open to next generation of TV grade superheroes. First up was a live action version of 
“No Ordinary Family” (I know it isn’t really, so don’t get smart) , which time dependant, I might get around to reviewing, but more recently was the long awaited “The Cape”. Yes all the good superhero are names have been taken.
TV show than Christopher Nolan’s 
, the music is over the top mental and the characters colourful cardboard cutouts. Overall the success of the show will depend on how seriously it takes itself and how seriously you take the show, don’t get me wrong there is nothing fresh here and it is every bit as predictable and formulaic as you think it will be. If you don’t want to think, don’t worry switch off and just laugh at the absurdity.
alumni Michael Imperioli.
or HBO’s 
, it tries to appeal to a larger audience perhaps trying to capture the audience who loved the father of modern police procedural drama 
.
is about a call centre manager sent to India in order to manage the jobs that have been outsourced. But enough the 2008 ITV comedy, this is about the fresh ideas that roll around in America’s week of pilots. Outsourced is a totally different sitcom in that was based on a 2006 
of the same name.
. Nothing new here, except a depressing reality check.
, 
; the cable shows are generally smarter and require a greater investment from the audience. The pacing and level of complexity in the show played with my expectations, I found that I had to pay close attention of risk confusing which con was being played. Evidently this happened to other viewers of the show who could not handle it, despite being given a great slot following House the figures tanked. Writer Kyle Killen has written an 
like dilemma of attending both. Although he spills the beans on his grand plan it is hard to see how the next handful of episodes will unfold, this can be a good thing, but only if you care about the characters and right now I am not sure that I do.
