TV reviews: ‘Back to You,’ ‘Gossip Girl’
“Back to You” (Wednesdays, Fox): “Frasier” star Kelsey Grammer and “Everybody Loves Raymond” star Patricia Heaton play Pittsburgh news anchors who are reunited when he comes crawling back after failing in L.A. He’s pompous and arrogant; she’s exasperated and brassy. Seems they had a fling once, too. The sitcom is familiar and easy-going, right down to the overactive laugh track and the “oh no you di’int!” sex jokes. Fred Willard plays the old-school sexist sports anchor, and Fred Willard is always a welcome sight. I laughed three or four times during the first episode and was generally amused the rest of the time in a mindless, unchallenging sort of way. TiVo verdict: It’s not a show I’d watch on purpose, but if I were flipping channels and happened upon it, I’d stick around.
“Gossip Girl” (Wednesdays, The CW): OMG you guys, the guy who created “The O.C.” totally created a new show! And it’s based on a series of young-adult books! Apparently! “Gossip Girl” is about idle rich Upper East Side teenagers who sit around being snotty to each other while they drink champagne and smoke marijuana. Their doings are reported on a blog written by the anonymous Gossip Girl (who we hear in voice-over, and it’s the voice of Veronica Mars herself, Kristen Bell). The pilot episode — in which queen bee Serena comes back to town after a mysterious year-long absence — didn’t indicate what tone the series will take. It wasn’t smart or witty enough to be legitimately enjoyable (the way the first season of “The O.C.” was), but neither was it campy enough to be a trashy guilty pleasure. All the juicy subplots introduced in the pilot suggest it could be “Dynasty Junior”; who knows if they’ll make it as fun as it could be? TiVo verdict: I sort of want to know what happens next … but not enough to expend the energy to tell TiVo to record it next week. That’s the kind of show it is.
September 20th, 2007 at 8:11 am
I had a similar reaction to Back to You. I won’t DVR it either, but I enjoyed it and with such likeable leads I hope it sticks around.
September 20th, 2007 at 11:04 am
I also watched “Back to You”, and though I was eager to cheer for it, I was less than dazzled. I got the feeling they were pushing to get all that clunky exposition out of the way so we can get on with the Anchorman-o-rama. I expect it to be less zany than the movie, but with essentially all the same character types, I was hoping it would be funnier.
September 20th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Same for me for “Back to you”: I wanted it to be better than it was. I thought Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton had good chemistry though: they provided all the funniest moments. I felt like the rhythm was a little off the rest of the time though, so maybe this will improve a little with age.
September 20th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
I love Fred Willard. Very unintentionally funny. But I wish they could change the format of the show (and of all shows, in fact) and eliminate the laugh track. I hate laugh tracks with a passion.
September 20th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
But laughtracks tell the stupid and humor-impared when to know something is funny. Otherwise, they’ll just stare blankly at the screen and then the show will be cancelled *cougharresteddevelopmentcough*.
September 21st, 2007 at 8:09 am
For being a premiere/pilot, me and the Mrs. were impressed with “Back to You”. We had high hopes with missing “Frasier” so much and being fans of all three leads, but also low expectations because it was a pilot, and because let’s face it, there have been a lot of new comedy shows that have come and gone featuring big names. I think the problem is that they don’t often surround the stars with decent supporting characters. In this case, I generally liked the anchor wannabe and the news director (even though he is essentially playing Chris Farley) and the weather girl. Yeah, they’re pretty much one-dimensional, but a lot of comedy characters are, and I can see them being good comedic fodder for the show.
My wife worked for a few years at a news station and enjoyed a lot of the little details about that kind of environment. For example, the anchors where she worked both did the same kind of bizarre vocal warmups before every broadcast. I agree it could have been funnier, but it did have quite a few good moments, and again, premieres and pilots of even the funniest shows are often very weak compared to what they become (Seinfeld, Arrested Development, The Office are all examples of that). There’s just too much exposition and character introduction. I thought the show got quite a few jokes in, though, and showed a lot of promise, so we’ll keep watching for now, at least.