The comments here remind me of seeing "The Dead Poets Society" and the audience expecting Robin Williams to be funny and half the audience laughing inappropriately at everything he said, then half the audience left after the first 20-30 minutes.
It is obviously a very awkward and strange situation. If they don't make it awkward and uncomfortable it would be weirder. As I said before, I think they have created a pleasant quirky world very much like "Northern Exposure" in which to drop their fish out of water story.
I am not the biggest SF fan but I have really enjoyed the show. A whole bunch of us watched it and really did enjoy it.
"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."
I actually found this episode much easier to get through than the pilot, and I'm excited to see where the show goes.
(And as a side note, I do think the critique of having no POC on the show is a totally valid one. And to whoever said Shonda Rhimes's shows are mostly white, that's patently untrue. I have never watched Scandal, but she's employed many, many actors of color and varying ethnicities on both Private Practice and Grey's Anatomy as series regulars. It's true that Kate Walsh and Ellen Pompeo happen to be white if that's who you are considering lead characters, but Sara Ramirez, Sandra Oh, Chandra Wilson, Audra McDonald, Taye Diggs, and many others have had and continue to have substantial roles on her shows.)
I admit, I'm sorta on the fence about the show, although I find it so watchable that I really shouldn't complain. It's the Amy Sherman-Palladino thing for me, and I felt this with Gilmore Girls too, but more so here. If Sutton's character were a real person, I'd wanna smack her everytime she opened her mouth. But I do find about half the lines genuinely funny, and I like that it has no fear of taking its time and telling the story slowly. Will have to watch tonight's.
I tried to like it, but I'm just not into the show at all. I don't like SF's acting. There, I said it. And the characters aren't that interesting. I'm trying to find a reason to watch, because I loved GG, ASP and NYC actors getting work. But it's just too annoying. I've watched a little of the dancing, just like I skipped over all the drama and soap stuff in 'Smash' and just watched some of the singing/dancing.
A co-worker once tried to sell a script called--wait for it--Bunheads, a few years ago. I can't find her name anywhere in association with the show. Hmmm...
I agree. I am a fan of Sutton's, but I don't care for her comedic acting anymore. I enjoyed her the first few times I saw her in a comedic role, but eventually I grew weary of her slapstick, goofy delivery. It becomes grating.
I couldn't continue watching the show after Hubble (what a name!) was gone. It just became two annoying characters sniping at each other and a chorus of four stereotypical tweens.
I think the camera falls in love with Sutton more and more every week. I have read from diehard Gilmore Girls fans that ASP likes to take her time in slowly developing the plot, which is where I'm getting a little restless. There's just not a lot of MEAT to each episode (the episode her husband directed was the worst offender). I think the audience get's that Michelle is gypsy at heart, Sasha is troubled, and Boo is self-conscious. These are great character development opportunities. Now, let's, I don't know, develop them.
I loved watching Sutton tap dance badly on this weeks show. Of course she was just staying in character, but after seeing her tap in Anything Goes, I imagine it was hard for her to tap so poorly.
"I have read from diehard Gilmore Girls fans that ASP likes to take her time in slowly developing the plot, which is where I'm getting a little restless. There's just not a lot of MEAT to each episode (the episode her husband directed was the worst offender). "
This is my concern. I admit, I was only a casual Gilmore Girls fan (when it started, a guy I was seeing was *obsessed*, and things didn't really work out so I think I started to connect what I found obnoxious about him with what I found obnoxious with the show, though I did eventually see the full season, even the one after ASP, as you call her, was fired), though I did see the two episodes of that awful Lauren Ambrose/Parker Posey sitcom she did that was a big flop (Jezzebel James?), which just seemed a bad format for her writing.
So I appreciate that the show is more about character and tone, and the feel of the town itself than about story. But the season is only 10 episodes long, and while it's on ABC Family and not a major network, it does have to compete with the teen melodramas they have otherwise, which seem to be story-story-story (and unwatchable, from what I've seen--and I *like* teen melodramas). We have *three* episodes left, and we've seen characters like the rich man on the hill (who seemed too obviously a potential love interest for Sutton's character) *once*. I get that she wrote Gilmore Girls this way--with the town's eccentric characters popping up here and there, and slowly introduced but, that show did have full 22 episode seasons, like most network tv shows. I like the show more and more, despite myself sometimes, and would like to see it given the chance of a second season, but I worry if there's really enough for many audiences to grab on to at this point.
Oh, and it was nice to see Todd Lowe, from True Blood, as the one-eyed plumber... I forgot that he kinda got his start (at least the first time I started to notice him) on Gilmore Girls ad is close with APS.
I am still watching but the teenage girls should just dance and stop saying rather obvious teenage things. I like Sutton Foster a lot, but she needs to have less comedy and a little more heart - I thought the balance was just right in the first two episodes but now she is just cranky/helpless all the time, and it does grate a little.
I've watched all the episodes, but I think I'm done. I can't stand the franticness of the dialogue. No one thinks or reacts, they just talk. FOREVER. (and yes, I know that was a trademark of The Gilmore Girls -- I didn't like that, either.)
And WHERE is this going? Again, a bunch of unlikable characters just being together.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
I think everyone on Gilmore Girls was more adept with the dialogue, too. Here a lot of it feels forced.
I still think it's cute and I'm definitely going to watch through the remainder of the season, but two weeks with no Kelly Bishop? THAT is unforgivable!
Amen, and makes no sense. Yes, Kelly wants Sutton to teach and this is the way she's tricking her into doing that--but from what we've seen of her character, I have no faith that her character would be on vacation this long :P Is it just a contract thing with the actress?
I wish the boy ballet dancers would have a few lines (though they'd probably be obnoxious like some of what the girls say). Just because so few tv shows or movies (Billy Elliot aside, and maybe something like Center Stage) really address what it would be like for a guy to dance as a kid in a small town. Then again the town seems to accept all kinds of crazy, so I guess nobody would care.
