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Glen reviews "Time of Your Life" (FOX) !!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
Glen here...
...with the first in a series of mini-reviews from some of this
Fall's upcoming pilots. Over the last few
weeks, I've run many reviews from many different contributors - now it's my turn!
PLEASE NOTE: I will be continually adding pilot reviews &
series start dates to COAXIAL
over the next couple of days, so be sure to check back for further
impressions of this Fall Season
(assuming, of course, you care at all about what I have to say
about this shockingly mundane Fall season...)
Time of Your Life - FOX
I'm guessing it's human nature to wonder about Hell.
Even the most atheistic of folk might be
intrigued by what Hell represents, and how Hell has been portrayed throughout history (in
various pieces of literature, art, film, music, etc).
In 1999, Hell has a new look. It's called Time of Your Life,
the Party of
Five spin-off which finds POF's Sarah (cow-eyed Jennifer Love Hewitt)
going to New York
City in search of her long lost father - in the hopes that learning about him will flesh-out her
identity and self-awareness.
Maybe finding him will also flesh-out her acting skills - as Hewitt
wanders through the
scenery looking utterly confused, completely dingy, thoroughly lost,
and...dare I say it...square.
Where we should feel empathy for her character and situation, Hewitt's
Sarah is so roundly
annoying and intellectually frustrating that it's impossible to wrap
one's brain around her
predicament, or even feel this character deserves to catch a
break and find daddy.
How dumb can dumb be?
Well, after a protracted series of misadventures and screw-ups
(including a pick pocketing which leaves her broke in a city full of strangers, and an attempted
mugging which results in a genuinely hardy laugh),
Sarah comes to believe she has - at long last
- located her papa. She tracks down the candidate; he's some big-shot something-or-the-other
who admits to having known and loved her mother - but he never slept with her so he can't be her
father.
Sarah is crushed, blabbers about how embarrassed she is - then storms out of the room.
This insanely rich, very nice man is quite taken by the quest she is on, and begs her to stay. He
wants to get to know her better because he loved her mother so much (we sense Sarah is the
daughter he wishes he'd had). So, does she befriend this
genuinely concerned Daddy
Warbucks, who has 1) power & money; 2) a point of association with
the Sarah (via her mom); and
3) is someone who might offer protection from the cruel world (
not to mention having the
resources which may help point her the right direction on her quest)?
No.
She sighs disgustedly, says "I have to go!", sweeps out of the room to leave him sitting
there alone, baffled. Much like the audience, no doubt.
Why the set-up if no apparent
follow-through? Beats me, the whole show is odd that way.
Maybe we'll see the man again in
future episodes, but it didn't feel like this would be the case.
I'm not going to devote too much time to Time of Your Life in
this review,
for several reasons: I've already given it forty-five minutes of my time and don't feel inclined to
give it too much more. More importantly, I am told even the Powers That Be...in an unusual
demonstration of creative savvy...have noted how brain searingly lousy the pilot for this series is
- and have decided to re-shoot some of the series' opening episode. As such, some of my rather harsh criticisms of the show could be negated by airtime.
News of this re-shoot is really quite promising, as there are only two directions Time of Your Life (as is) should have headed: massive re-shoots, or oblivion (I would have preferred the latter - but you can't win 'em all...). Perhaps, during these re-shoots, some of the supporting actors will stop
projecting their voices as if they're on-stage instead of in front of a camera. And one can only
hope that the plentiful & offensive ethnic and sexual stereotypes which populate Time of Your
Life will toned down and approached more...honestly (there's a gay
character who even a
heterosexual male like myself would find offensive - that takes some
effort).
Hmmmmm - "approached more honestly". Honestly = honesty. Honesty = truth. There
doesn't seem to be a lot of "truth" to Time of Your Life, it
doesn't feel like it's being
sincere or "real". There's something fluffy and even cheesy about it,
despite the fact that it is
told with utter conviction and genuine earnestness. There might actually be something here if the
show is effectively re-tooled: an innocent fish-out -of-water, searching for her identity by trying
to find a long-lost part of her origin could be rather intriguing if done properly.
But it sure isn't much fun when handled like this. To paraphrase The Simpsons:
"Time of Your Life? Why, that's the most blatant case of fraudulent advertising since the
release of The Never Ending Story!"
Glen
If you send a message to the above address & bounces back to you,
address!
Or call:
(512) 347-1992
Mail can be sent to:
Glen Oliver
P.O. BOX 160812
Austin, TX 78716-0812
USA
P.O. BOX 160812
Austin, TX 78716-0812
USA
Austin, TX 78716-0812
USA
USA
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+ Expand All
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I continue to pity you Americans. Sitcomms (not funny) and crap drama flow freely from your networks. If this is a true stinker I pray we in Australia will not be subjected to it's shiteness. Then again, we got "The Visitor"..... the pain. The rest of the world isn't going to mind if you produce one tenth of the material you currently do but of a decent level, either on a intellectual or comical level. Becker (first episode) very funny. Mildly original and even a little (shudder) heart felt. Of course by episode 2 it had slipped into beloved crap-dom. The Nanny with Ted Danson if you like. Please stop. Just stop. We forgive you.
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Neighbors...Home & Away...A Country Pracitce...you're right, us Americans just can't compete.
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The Sullivans, Flying Doctors, Shortland Street, that bloody Murder Call, that last one is prime time viewing in Ireland! They have Homicide and Law&Order on at 1 in the morning and yet this crud is polluting our tv screens?
It's all very very depressing. Beats Touched by an angel though.
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I personally love the fact that America produces such a wide volume of TV. Alot of shite and some good stuff... and over here in the UK, we seem to get most of the good stuff! Also we get the Aussie soaps, but you can't have everything. Sadly Some American crap does filter through... Jerry Springer for example.
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...E Street; Prisoner, Cell Block H; Young Doctors and Water Rats, which, lets face it, has all the flash and drama of a below-average Andy Griffiths episode. With boats.
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Blue Heelers...
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I can't believe any Australian would have the nerve to criticize American television. Sure
75% of the shows produced are crap but that's 25% better than us. Australian shows are
unbelievably terrible, bad acting, bad scripts, bad sets, bad direction, bad everything.
Every time anyone in Australia has any talent they are snapped up by America, which is a
good thing because talented people should not have to put up with steaming piles of crap
that we produce. -
To kind of get this back on track:
Glen, you're wasting your time, and to tell the truth, I expected better of you. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence should realize that the only reason Jennifer Love Hewitt has her own show is to showcase those two bald midgets she keeps hiding in her shirts. Give it the Friends treatment. Mute it, throw on a CD or grab a book, sit back, and enjoy the secenery. -
Well, the truth is not to be hidden. We are no better. I will not defend Australian TV. It may well be some of the worst in the world. My piont was more on the continuing failure in general of current genre. I want something new and entertaining. I do not want re-makes of Faulty Towers with 1 bit american has beens. I know I ask for WAY too much, so I will accept the current theme's (sit-not-comms) and p*ss weak drama. But PLEASE entertain me. Lie to me, make me laugh. Just stop insulting me. I am glad I read a great deal of books. Left to TV I think I may have trans-gresed to a more simmian form. You people should be glad I ask for more from US TV. I know Australian TV is beyond help, (save Flacco and Sandman. Only Australian's would understand THAT humour.)
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Mmmmmm...sweater puppets.
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Not sure if the Castle was released in the States, but I saw it with my Australian girlfriend and I can see why it wouldn't make an impact: the humor doesn't really translate. She thought it was hilarious, I just didn't get it. It happens. However, in the instersts of fairness, I did see one Australian show I liked: Sea Change. Quite funny in a Northern Exposer kind of way.
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That is the subject of this particular article. A lame ass American TV show, not how good or bad Aussie TV is. Try to remember that please.
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When I first read about this I was surprised Fox was that hard up for a show to produce of spinoff of Party of five. J.L.H is good as a supporting character and they should have kept her as such.Why do a show like Gilligans Island, Voyager or the Incredible Hulk where you cant find your father or the shows over.
I'll miss this one.
Mike -
I feel almost bad commenting about the alleged plot of the program in the first place, given that I think "the boys" are right in the reason that the show is on the air at all. Perhaps that's a better title for the show. "JLH and the dancing Sweater Puppets," LOL. However, I can confirm that this review is pretty much on target. I read the script for the pilot, and I kept having the same thoughts as expressed in the review -- that I could not care less about the characters, and that there was something cheesy that I could not quite put my finger on in the way it was written. I had *thought* that as far as the written word goes, that it would not be totally unsavable if the acting were totally inspired. Not only, according to Glen, did this not happen, but in fact, as they say, they went "another direction." You know something is truly rotten in Denmark when the powers that be admit to it. www.get.to/sterlingwolfe/
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Glen, a friend who works for one of Hollywood's major test marketing agencies (I won't say which one but 90% of the new shows you see on network TV are tested through this agency) told me that ToYL tested so badly among the target audience (young females) that Sony Pictures is practically begging FOX for the chance to totally rethink the spinoff's concept (we're talking a different premise, new script, a new cast, etc.). FOX is considering shelving the show completely. The current word is that a second episode has yet to be shot, and that, this late into the TV network production schedule, ToYL won't premiere on schedule this Fall but will instead be slated for midseason. In the meantime, JLH will continue to appear in Po5 and that show will write her character out of it in a gradual, better transition into a spinoff. Also, a retinkered spinoff may not be set in NYC at all -- the WB has yet another "young folk lost in NY who talk all cutesy" series on the way ("Jack and Jill"), so the entire setting of ToYL already sounds tired. This is the unofficial word. We may hear an official announcment either toward the end of this month or early next.
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Some of the Po5 writers came up with an alternate premise: Instead of bumming around NYC, JLH and a female buddy (probably African-American or Hispanic, my friend mused) take to the road and visit different cities every episode -- a female take on the classic "Route 66" series (a recent example of this idea would be the unsuccessful "Touched by an Angel" spinoff "Promised Land"). Turns out that her dad traveled a lot in his lifetime, so with every city they visit, she discovers more about him and gets closer to finding him. Her companion, conversely, is trying to get away from her family for some suitably angst-ridden reason. My friend added that the writers advocating this idea want to try making certain episodes of such a rethink edgy and surreal in a "Fear and Loathing" and "Thelma and Louise" style to set it apart further from Po5. They also suggested to FOX that JLH would find or discover the truth about her daddy by the end of season 1 (the network has been concerned that the finding dad premise is limited and will wear thin pretty quick). They even provided an out for the series' star: If the series gets cancelled, JLH will just find daddy, drive back to San Francisco and rejoin her Po5 peers. FOX is more warm to this premise. Using Fox's Vancouver studios and Sony's Culver City studios to fake various U.S. locales, the production thinks such a premise could be doable. Oddly, though, the one person who isn't totally into this idea, supposedly, is JLH herself (then again, maybe she doesn't want to commit to the commute between L.A. and Vancouver). Personally, I think the second idea sounds more appropriate of the title "The Time of Your Life."
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I'm a part of this show's target audience, and it lacks any appeal whatsoever. The idea of watching Sarah, through JLH's less than subtle acting approach, for an hour sounds like punishment. There is a good reason, why the "dancing sweater puppets" (LOL!) are omnipresent in so much of JLH's work, boys, to distract you all from evaluating the performance of the whole actress.
Okay, that theory is about as original as the whole adopted kid premise, but it is key to note that the boobage technique won't draw in the key female audience this project needs to succeed like Dawson's Creek. In addition, I haven't heard much about the requisite handsome 20 something males in the teenage drama, which would help ratings, because the targeted audience wants male eye candy. (Fill me in on that if I missed that in the casting). Anyhoo, if anyone out there wants to watch a well-thought out and sincere (not nauseating) coming of age NY story, check out Felicity, which, notably also has an adoption-where's-my-family plotline going on, courtesy of far more talented performers. -
G, C, D and the bridge is Em, C and after awhile throw in a D, am I right? Curse you FOX for pissing on Green Day by associating them with Jenifer Love Hewit's Sweater Meat (however nice they may be).
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the one armed man!
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lets face it the whole entertainment industry is in a rut. with the exception of the video game industry, which seems to be the only one that is still capable of shelling out a fun game with a good plot. they have good plots because they aren't afraid to do something original. hollywood just trys to stick with 'what sells' and not thats not working anymore. i think that those people involved in sitcoms and movies should around and find some original writers who have lived life as we have not hire there writers strait out of harvard
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The premise for this show was stupid to begin with. It's a ripoff of that horrible WB show "Felicity" and it's just a terrible idea to take Sarah away from "Party of Five." She's a good supporting actress and works very well with the cast on "Party of Five." The chemistry between her and Bailey is something to behold and it's a really crummy idea of the producers to wanna take her to NY instead of just letting her character grow on "Party of Five."
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