'October Road' trips over cliches, coincidences
March 15, 2007
BY DOUG ELFMAN
Chicago Sun-Times
You watch "October Road," the new series after "Grey's Anatomy" on ABC, and you pick up wit and wisdom along the way, because life is special, hopeful, yearning and ... ah, I'm just joshin' ya.
"October Road" is such a rote TV drama, I'm gonna make fun of it for 500 words. Enjoy!
This is a you-can't-go-home-again show. A guy named Nick flees his tiny hometown at age 18 for a backpacking trip and doesn't go back until he's 28. He returns as a best-selling author of a novel that dished dirt on his sketchy friends and the girlfriend he abandoned in that town.
Here's some of the wit and wisdom I was talking about, from the first two episodes.
A woman says: "The past is like a pimple on prom night, Eddie. You can try and ignore it, but it's still gonna prevent Jimmy Wiper from slow dancing with you during your favorite Boys II Men song." (The guy she's convoluting to looks like he's just now getting the meaning of life.)
A 10-year-old boy says to his mom and Nick: "Whatever you two have going on with each other, why don't I delicately extract myself and order some [drinks]." (Yes, 10-year-olds talk just like that, all the time.)
What's special about fictional Knights Ridge, Mass., is it's a super small town of coincidences. It takes only two minutes for Nick to run into both his old nemesis and his ex-girlfriend Hannah ("That '70s Show's" Laura Prepon), who's steamed at him for escaping town years ago.
Nick (Bryan Greenberg) coincidentally drives by Hannah's house while she's kissing a guy in the yard. In another episode, Nick's walking by her house and glances through a window, and she's coincidentally kissing the guy again. Those two should move their game to the boudoir.
Nick is supposed to be in town for only 24 hours. But if he goes back to New York, "October Road" doesn't happen. Gee, you think he'll give up the big city, fame and fawning hot girls to stay in pokeyville?
He's motivated to stay partly because he's crushing on his ex. Also, she has a little boy he suspects is their love child, the precocious little 10-year-old bastard.
In the first episode, Nick does a lot in one day. Those sketchy old friends invite him back into their air-guitar band, which they never disbanded. Gee, I wonder what song they'll air-play now that their old bud's come back. Oh, please, please, let it be "The Boys Are Back in Town."
"October Road" is at home at ABC, which is lately a big fan of middling, suburban, light dramas about upper-middle-class people whose hearts ache for meaning and unrequited fantasies ("Grey's," "Brothers & Sisters," "Desperate Housewives," "Men in Trees," "What About Brian").
Nick sure aches. He supposes: "How do you reconcile the past with the present when you don't really feel comfortable with either one?"
Here's an idea for Nick. Suck it up, bro. You're a well-off writer with ladies at your feet. Do you truly want to move home, with your spacy dad, spiteful ex-best friend and angry ex-girlfriend? Really? Then you're a dolt, and I have no use for you unless you take that college girl you're eyeing on a picnic and feed her grapes and stroke her hair.
BY DOUG ELFMAN
Chicago Sun-Times
You watch "October Road," the new series after "Grey's Anatomy" on ABC, and you pick up wit and wisdom along the way, because life is special, hopeful, yearning and ... ah, I'm just joshin' ya.
"October Road" is such a rote TV drama, I'm gonna make fun of it for 500 words. Enjoy!
This is a you-can't-go-home-again show. A guy named Nick flees his tiny hometown at age 18 for a backpacking trip and doesn't go back until he's 28. He returns as a best-selling author of a novel that dished dirt on his sketchy friends and the girlfriend he abandoned in that town.
Here's some of the wit and wisdom I was talking about, from the first two episodes.
A woman says: "The past is like a pimple on prom night, Eddie. You can try and ignore it, but it's still gonna prevent Jimmy Wiper from slow dancing with you during your favorite Boys II Men song." (The guy she's convoluting to looks like he's just now getting the meaning of life.)
A 10-year-old boy says to his mom and Nick: "Whatever you two have going on with each other, why don't I delicately extract myself and order some [drinks]." (Yes, 10-year-olds talk just like that, all the time.)
What's special about fictional Knights Ridge, Mass., is it's a super small town of coincidences. It takes only two minutes for Nick to run into both his old nemesis and his ex-girlfriend Hannah ("That '70s Show's" Laura Prepon), who's steamed at him for escaping town years ago.
Nick (Bryan Greenberg) coincidentally drives by Hannah's house while she's kissing a guy in the yard. In another episode, Nick's walking by her house and glances through a window, and she's coincidentally kissing the guy again. Those two should move their game to the boudoir.
Nick is supposed to be in town for only 24 hours. But if he goes back to New York, "October Road" doesn't happen. Gee, you think he'll give up the big city, fame and fawning hot girls to stay in pokeyville?
He's motivated to stay partly because he's crushing on his ex. Also, she has a little boy he suspects is their love child, the precocious little 10-year-old bastard.
In the first episode, Nick does a lot in one day. Those sketchy old friends invite him back into their air-guitar band, which they never disbanded. Gee, I wonder what song they'll air-play now that their old bud's come back. Oh, please, please, let it be "The Boys Are Back in Town."
"October Road" is at home at ABC, which is lately a big fan of middling, suburban, light dramas about upper-middle-class people whose hearts ache for meaning and unrequited fantasies ("Grey's," "Brothers & Sisters," "Desperate Housewives," "Men in Trees," "What About Brian").
Nick sure aches. He supposes: "How do you reconcile the past with the present when you don't really feel comfortable with either one?"
Here's an idea for Nick. Suck it up, bro. You're a well-off writer with ladies at your feet. Do you truly want to move home, with your spacy dad, spiteful ex-best friend and angry ex-girlfriend? Really? Then you're a dolt, and I have no use for you unless you take that college girl you're eyeing on a picnic and feed her grapes and stroke her hair.
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