Take Me To The Pilots ’12: CBS’ MADE IN JERSEY – by Daniel Fienberg
The Pitch: “My Cousin Vinnie,” if you got rid of Joe Pesci and it just turned out that Marisa Tomei was a talented lawyer, in addition to being a hilarious ethnic stereotype.
Quick Response: Janet Montgomery *is* a star. I agree with FOX, which brought her in in an unsuccessful attempt to goose ratings for “Human Target” and I agree with CBS, which cast Montgomery in a show called “Made in Jersey,” despite a natural accent that’s distinctly from the wrong side of The Pond. I don’t really know what to make of “Made in Jersey,” unfortunately. CBS has been running trailers which focus more on Fish Out of Water humor than the actual tone of the show, which is closer to a straight-forward character-driven legal procedural with hints of cartoony local color. Montgomery, whose Jersey accent is acceptable, if not flawless, is very good playing a woman who comes off as kinda a Sherlock Holmes for trashy, blue collar details. She’s sexy and straight-forward and Montgomery really isn’t mugging or over-relying on stereotypes. The same cannot be said of Donna Murphy and Erin Cummings as two members of the main character’s Big Stereotypical Italian Family, an element that the producers said at TCA press tour that they intend to play up. Ugh. Bad idea.
Category: TV Review
Latest LOUIE Kills – And It’s All in the Writing
Last night’s opening of a 3 part arc on LOUIE took our breath away, asking, as it did, questions like:
“What price success?”
NBC Shares What “Normal” Is
**This is a review of the Pilot episode of NBC’s “The New Normal”, which debuts on September 11, 2012. You may screen it online early to decide whether it’s good, great, or not quite “normal” enough for you.**
What is normal?
“Who are we to make these decisions? We’re the media elite.” (News from The Newsroom)
I have yet to read a single review of The Newsroom that doesn’t reveal as much or more about the character of the reviewer as it does about the show itself. Although there are many (many) sins of television making of which I could accuse Aaron Sorkin, uncomplicated is not one of them.
What the hullabaloo reveals is a cultural conversation many of us are having right now, yearning for intelligence in news. Sorkin takes that conversation (not a new revelation by any means) and runs with it – and apparently (despite mixed reviews) popularly enough to garner a second season.
Hulu Brings Us the Best in Canadian TV (?!)
We want to say that’s an oxymoron but aren’t in the mood for the flak. Fingers to lips then as we read:
Why you should be watching Hulu’s creepy deal-with-the-devil series The Booth at the End – by Lauren Davis
