wergo

.....well, maybe it'll get better.....


...maybe.... ??


I loved 'Gilmore Girls' and both Lauren Ambrose and Parker Posey are in my top ten sexiest celebrities list, so this should have been a home run but; God, it was hard to sit through. Everything about it screamed hour-long drama dressed up as a half-hour sitcom. With the most obnoxious laugh track I've heard in years, regardless of whether it followed a humorous line or not. It might have been okay on the page, but the editing and music (and who told Parker to scream her lines like her volume knob was set to "11"?) just killed it dead.

Patman

The pilot was pretty bad, and the laugh track made things worse. It didn't make me laugh even once. The less said about the pilot, the better.

The second episode "Frankenstein Baby" was much smoother, both in terms of dialogue pacing (and delivery) and the 2 lead actresses had a better handle on their characters.

Sadly, this timeslot will probably kill any chance of it finding its legs.

Jimmy James

The laugh track and rapid fire speeches clashed horribly. The most puzzling thing was how the house and/or apartment the sisters live in, though. The kid soliciting donations scene seemed to make it apparent we were dealing with a house, but we had a scene in the building hallway in the second episode. Did they change what Posey's character's home was supposed to be and just not bother because they know this is DOA?

I agree that the second episode was light years ahead of the terrible pilot, but it was still a very weak effort. Oh well. Maybe ASP's next attempt will be a lot better.

Patman

Jimmy, are you related to Jez?

Jimmy James

No, sir. I'm just the man so nice they named him twice.

J.J.A. Sabadoz

I agree, but I liked the drama that was underneath it. It's too bad somebody didn't think to retool it, and there's no way it will last long enough to grow.

Ayre

Parker Posey just seemed too sad. The type of person you meet, listen to them whine for a couple minutes and then make an excuse to leave ... never coming back.

Which is exactly what happened with me and this show.

creekdipper

Is the title character an outlaw prostitute?

aktick

That's exactly what the title sounds like to me.

nightwing82

I really enjoyed both episodes and laughed out loud several times. I added the season pass to Tivo.

wergo

Once we get more details, that'll probably not be too far off the mark.

Jezebel was the name of the imaginary playmate of Lauren Ambrose's character when she was a little girl, and she grew up to be the "wild" irresponsible one (molding her life after Jezebel?). Parker's character (the uptight "mature" one) talked an author (Parker's a book editor with, judging by the apartment she had in the second episode, a $500,000/mo. salary) into using it as the name of a lead character in a series of books, so I guess that's supposed to show that she's in some way jealous of her sister's wild nature.

I assume we'll get more details on both the book character and what Ambrose's imaginary childhood friend was like as the sibling bonding scenes develop.

nightwing82

Yeah I didn't like that in the first episode she took the train and had a house and then in the second episode they switched to that huge apartment. House was more believable.

skacore

Thought both episodes were great, laughed many times. I loved how Parker Posey played her character, Lauren Ambrose was great too. I'm sure it will fail, but it was great to see so many of the smaller roles filled by familiar actresses. With a bit more time I'm sure they will develop better timing and chemistry, but I'm sure that won't happen.

Usually I hate drama in my sitcoms, but this meshed the drama/comedy very well, like Dharma & Greg did. Parker Posey finding out she's unable to have children isn't really......funny, but they pulled it off well.

The laugh track definitely detracted from the show since it was monstrously out of sync with the jokes.

marty888

Awful ..... simply awful. Two of my favorite actresses who will survive this to do bigger and better things, but meanwhile I am embarassed for them.

And yes ..... most offensive laugh track in years.

Jadzia

It's one thing to have a laugh track when the show has one main set and a studio audience is somehow implied. I just do not understand having a laugh track for a show like this where you have scenes in the vast office workplace that are obviously filmed on location.

I would have enjoyed it much more without the awful laugh track. I am not sure why Palladino didn't just structure this more like the Gilmore Girls, as a comedic drama. I always laughed at that show without being told to. The traditional sitcom trappings are just all wrong for this show.

I am going to keep watching, but they need to lose the awful canned laughter.

Giantrobo

I didn't see the whole hour but I liked what I saw so I'm willing to give it a chance. I love Diane Wiest and I didn't know she was in this so that was a nice surprise. The Father seemed like "Frank Barone Lite" but I'm not sure what that means or if it's good or bad so we'll see how that pans out.

Ambrose is one of my favorite Redheads and Posey has been growing on me over the years so I liked them both in their roles.

Snowmaker

I had the show on for a total of 1 minute and had to change it because I could not take the laugh track a second longer.

How did shows used to work with them?

Jimmy James

Isn't ASP's background prior to Gilmore Girls essentially Veronica's Closet and Roseanne? After the way she made it sound she and her husband were working on Gilmore Girls (it sounded like she was at the level of micro-managing every aspect of the show, with support from Daniel), my guess is that she felt she would prefer the half hour format for this as a break from the back breaking work of 22 hours of programming a year. 11 hours is indeed half as much work, particularly when you're writing comedy bits either way.

From what I can tell, Daniel is not doing much on this show. He has an EP credit, but it seems he must be writing for Family Guy.

wergo

They didn't.

Best case scenario; they worked in spite of them.

Tracer Bullet

The pilot was pretty awful, but the second episode improved dramatically. I didn't notice the laugh track, which means I was actually laughing.

Still, it's being dumped on Friday nights, which means it won't be back. Oh well.

DRG

I just figured out I can't stand Parker Posey.

fujishig

ditto. Only had time to watch the first episode, though, so I'll give the second one a chance. But her character (and her mannerisms) were just so annoying... I couldn't tell if it was just her trying to be true to the character or what.

movieking

Posey was way too over the top for my liking. I'd probably PVR and watch whenever, but I can't see this show last very long.

fujishig

Ok, watched the second episode, which was a little better than the first. Now I don't like either sister: Posey's character is too over the top, and the other sister is just crazy... that whole last scene with them interacting, her eyes were bugged out. It just seems like such an odd premise for a show, and they haven't even gotten to the parts of the premise that will/should be uncomfortable yet.

Of course, my thoughts on the show don't matter... we'll watch to the end because of two words... Hello Kitty. Thought that was genius putting it in there, and then ending the show with the theme song, even if that was over the top as well. But my wife loves Hello Kitty, and while I doubt we'll see those phones again, that episode was probably enough to get her interested for the duration. So we'll see how it does this week....

JasonF

Those clsoing credits were a flash of brilliance.

Between Amy Sherman Palladino, Parker Posey, and Lauren Ambrose, there's enough sheer talent there to make me think that this show has got to click and start firing on all cylinders sooner or later, and that when it does, it's going to be great. So I'll stick with it even though the hour we saw this week was no better than your typical Generic Sitcom.