Watching Ellie

Will there ever be a successful "Seinfeld" spin-off? Maybe. But I'm still waiting. Julia Lous-Dreyfuss has talent, which she wonderfully demonstrated on the hit sitcom. This show is just as lame as most sitcoms. But I guess the creators felt it had "hit" written all over it, because it's new and innovative: no laugh track and shot in real time. I gotta admit, that is original. But where's the laughs? Added to the cast are the talents of Don Lake and Peter Stormare, but they're also given thankless roles. The show is good-natured and never depends on cheap sex gags, but it's also incredibly dull. I'd rather watch paint try than watch Ellie.

My score: 3 (out of 10)

It's too bad this show got cancelled so quickly, because personnally, I liked it a lot. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a remarkable actress and the supporting cast is just as awesome, especially Steve Carell who played Ellie's arrogant, annoying but hilarious ex-boyfriend Edgar (lucky for us, we got to see him play an equally arrogant guy in Bruce Almighty) . I'm afraid the pilot, which was just OK, dissuaded many from keeping watching "Ellie": during the first episodes, the show was trying to find itself, trying to be original but it still had that Seinfeld feel at the same time (the fact that Ellie would sing at the end of the first few episodes was quite reminiscent of Jerry's opening and closing monologues), and I have to admit that at first, it was hard to tell Ellie and Elaine apart. But eventually, the show slightly changed its concept and got better and funnier, and I'm told it was a whole lot more watchable than the Micheal Richards show and Bob Peterson, Jason Alexander's sitcom. Seinfeld Curse? Not in Julia's case, who has the talent to be an even better headliner than Jerry ever was. Too bad, just too bad...

Most of these comments show exactly why interesting and innovative shows, or indeed any show that's not in the same mold as every other show, don't get made. Or if they get made, they don't attract viewers quickly enough for the networks and they get dumped, whereas junk like "Veronica's Closet" just keeps getting renewed. "Action" was brilliant, and i'm glad it had its short perfect run. "Freaks and Geeks" was great. "Undeclared" is great. "Once and Again" had the best-written teens on televison, maybe ever. "The Tick" took a brilliant cartoon and somehow made it even better in live-action. And they all failed, because the American people want jokes in their comedy, jokes that come at regular intervals. They don't want comedy that's closer to drama, or to "real life", or to tragedy. They want a laugh track to tell them when something's funny. "Watching Ellie" is really funny, mostly because Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a brilliant physical comedienne. You watch her expressions, what she does with her eyes and mouth and hands, reacting to the frustrations of life, and she is just brilliant. The 22-minute limit is a gimmick, but it's actually fun to see what new situation the writers come up with to attach the ticking clock to. This show is going to die a quick death, and in five years it's going to come out on DVD and everyone will declaim its brilliance. Too bad it's a network show. Cheers to Julia Louis-Dreyfus (and even to Brad Hall).

I recorded the premiere of "Watching Ellie" last night to view after watching my other standard Tuesday night shows. I'm so glad I did, because this show is totally worth watching.

The show's use of real time action is not a not a new concept to television (as seen on HBO and Showtime), but it is rather new to advertiser supported networks like NBC. The concept of using real time action is a breath of fresh air in the land of the half hour sitcom, with their story lines frequently interupted by commercials. The actual length of a 'half-hour' sitcom is twenty-two minutes. "Watching Ellie" broke this into two halves, with only on stop for commercials in the middle. I noticed, thankfully, that there was no laugh track used (an overused concept).

The ability of the actors to accurately portray what is really going on in a twenty-two minute span obviously gives it a sense of real time passing, rather than a beginning-middle-end storyline where everything falls into place perfectly. Now, don't get me wrong, I love my sitcoms. I am frequently glued to my TV in the evenings. But it is nice to see something new every once in a while.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays Ellie, a single lounge singer who happens to be sleeping with the married guitarist of her backup band. So far, the show seem to be about watching her everyday life as a lounge singer.

Watching this show reminded me of an episode of "Mad About You" that broached this same concept. The story was about Jamie and Paul as they were trying to put their little Mabel to sleep with out hovering over her. The whole episode was shot in one take, with no commercial interuptions.

I really hope this show makes it. I am looking forward to future episodes.

The concept of this show was brilliant in it's originality. Okay, I know 24 was pretty new and doing the same sort of thing, but this was a "sitcom". It was more of a melodrama. It was met with similar criticism as Seinfeld was. Truth was the concept was well executed, but it was like being around people who have their own inside jokes and you are on the outside. You might laugh not because it's funny, but because it looks silly or is uncomfortable. It's not straight ahead humor. To all of you people cheering on this Seinfeld curse crap that's exactly what it is. They were saying that after The Michael Richards Show went off the air because The Tick suffered a similar fate. The Tick! Patrick Warburton who played Elaine's boyfriend in no more than 30 episodes (and that is being generous) is credited for starting the curse. His character on Seinfeld made him look like an easy target I guess. After the Michael Richards Show, Jason Alexander's show came on and they had it on several different time slots in the few weeks it was on. Before that show came on it was already being unfairly denounced. If you're going to attribute some curse that was started by a non-regular character then I want to point out that a character that was on a lot more frequently than Warburton was in a very successful show in the latter days of Seinfeld and beyond. Anyone hear of Wayne Knight? That's right, it's not something you want to hear. You all just want to hear the bad stuff and try to take away a great show's credibility. Watching Ellie was not a great show. Seinfeld was not a great show at first, but it got the chance because it was the right time for it. In another time the concepts attempted in Ellie will be used and develop a very solid sophisticated sit com. The only curse is that people let the media create some "curse" and like sheep say "I won't watch that somebody from Seinfeld is on." You all need to realize the Entertainment Tonight and shows of that kind are shown when people are having dinner for a reason and it ain't ratings my friend.