MovieChickie

Charlie Crews is a former cop turned inmate who has just gotten out of jail after 12 years for a crime he didn't commit. He becomes a detective again upon his release as part of a settlement with the city. I just watched the pilot, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's not some dumb action piece with big car chases and naked women. It also has a great relationship between the two lead characters, a man and a woman. They're detective partners, but there isn't any forced chemistry tacked on. You know, the whole they hate each other, but you can't deny the attraction...uggh. This avoids that perfectly. It also has some great actors, Damian Lewis is always great, since "Band of Brothers" he's displayed a remarkable talent for character roles. And this is most certainly a character drama. But unlike Shark or Monk or something where the character is the whole plot, there's also a great deal of other fantastic elements. The man was in jail from 1995-2007, so there's cute scenes about a sort of culture shock, mostly pertaining to technological advances. But there's also a darker side, as Crews was brutalized in prison (as a former cop) and has a vendetta against those who conspired to put him in jail. This is the overarching arc of the series, but smaller cases worked with his partner form the bulk of the story lines. I was really impressed and look forward to further episodes. I just hope that NBC manages to get this show enough ratings to keep it on the air. Kudos on a job well done. J.

I'm impressed...I really like this show. I never watched it when it was on originally on Movie Central because I thought it was another "Sex and the City" rip-off, only Canadian, and I wasn't the hugest fan of SATC to begin with...but I turned it on the other day on Showcase (where it reruns the same 6 episodes ad-nauseum...please get the second season) and on Movie Central, and I was pleasantly surprised. It is sort of a version of SATC, but it's not totally, because it's about Hollywood. And, since I gather it's about creator/writer Brigitte Bako's real-life (if you disregard the disclaimer) it actually has some bite. The concept is basically an actress named GiGi in her early 30's goes back to Hollywood after some time to try to regain her career, but her original acting career was in sort of bad, b-movies, almost soft-porn kind of stuff (Bako was in the "Red Shoe Diaries"). So the jobs she gets offered are not, well, high caliber. She has three friends, a bad-boy on/off boyfriend etc. The friends also have story lines in the show as well. So the show sort of oscillates between showbiz and personal. It really shines in the showbiz stuff, since that provides the show with it's funniest laugh out loud moments. (There is a scene in the episode "HBO", about the third of fourth episode, where I was in hysterics, I still giggle when I think about it...it was probably the best in the series, shout out to Alberta). So overall, a really solid show. I hope there's a third season, but since it's been over a year since the second...so,probably not. *****I also just want to add that I'm impressed with Bako. Here's a girl who maybe wasn't getting the roles she wanted (I assume from the show) and didn't have the career she wanted, so she went out and created a great role for herself. And she was active in writing the episodes as well as producing and creating the show. Good for her. How often do we hear actresses complaining about how hard it is to get roles in Hollywood if you aren't in you 20's anymore? Bako did something about it. And it's great. And she's great in it. Thanks for the show. And to the viewers, WATCH IT!

Oh man, oh man...man...what a mess. I watched about 10 minutes of this and I knew it was not going to be, you know, good, or even adequate, or even watchable for that matter. Instead, it lost me. I'm the exact age of these people, and I'm even in a similar situation (not the writing about friends thing) with my friends from high school and all that, but I couldn't relate at all. And I get the feeling the whole point of this show is relate-ability, especially to people like me. It missed that mark big time. Also, on "That 70's Show) Laura Prepon wasn't a great actress, but that was OK, 'cause it didn't need acting, but whoa! When her character started speaking, I actually started laughing, her voice was so flat, I can't even pretend to act that bad. Maybe she was just having a bad day. Anyhow, I would not recommend this show, at all, ever. Watch "Raines" instead, it's a much more interesting show, with, like, good writing and acting and characters and all that good stuff a show should have. J.