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Jezebel James?
.....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. |
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. |
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. |
Jimmy, are you related to Jez? :D
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No, sir. I'm just the man so nice they named him twice.
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Originally Posted by wergo
Everything about it screamed hour-long drama dressed up as a half-hour sitcom.
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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. |
Is the title character an outlaw prostitute? :johnwoo:
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Originally Posted by creekdipper
Is the title character an outlaw prostitute? :johnwoo:
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I really enjoyed both episodes and laughed out loud several times. I added the season pass to Tivo.
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Originally Posted by creekdipper
Is the title character an outlaw prostitute? :johnwoo:
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. |
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.
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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. |
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. |
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. |
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 <i>Lite</i>" 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. |
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? |
Originally Posted by Jadzia
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.
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. |
Originally Posted by 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? Best case scenario; they worked in spite of them. |
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. |
I just figured out I can't stand Parker Posey.
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Originally Posted by DRG
I just figured out I can't stand Parker Posey.
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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.
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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.... |
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. |
Originally Posted by DRG
I just figured out I can't stand Parker Posey.
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Finally watched both episodes last night.
I did notice the house/apartment switch too. Even my wife (who rarely notices such things) commented "Isn't this apartment different than the one we saw 20 minutes ago?" I can only guess that they filmed the pilot and the first episode so far apart that they couldn't replicate the first apartment. Any clue how far apart they were made? But to the show- the sad thing is that the writing IS actually good, but because of the forced laughter, it gets lost. It actually could be a good show if they moved it off of video and onto film, and stopped with the laugh track, because it actually forces the dialogue to flow poorly. Without trying to work around pauses where the canned laughter would fit, the show might work. But as above posters have said, the time slot will relegate it to a 6-episode run. -jason |
I also thought there was something odd with the whole diner scene in the first episode... in HD, at least, it looked like the shots of Parker Posey were very grainy compared to those of her sister. Anyone else notice this? Did they replace the actress playing the sister or something (since she only shows up at the very end of the first ep anyway)?
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Originally Posted by fujishig
Did they replace the actress playing the sister or something (since she only shows up at the very end of the first ep anyway)?
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After watching both episodes, I can't figure out what they are trying to do with this show. In the first episode they seem to set up Posey's character as a stick-in-the-mud type, but in the second episode she's suddenly the super quirky and goofy one. It's like she changed from 'Emily Gilmore' to 'Lorelai Gilmore' in between the two episodes. She's neurotic in both, but the other core character traits seem to have shifted.
I also agree this felt like it should have been a comedic drama. Supposedly Paladino missed doing sitcoms because that's where she started out, but her writing here would clearly work better if this were set up more like Gilmore Girls. |
Wow. That was even worse than the first two. Still, I'm just crazy enough about Parker Posey and Lauren Ambrose that know I'm not gonna be able to avoid next week's disaster. I try and look away, but I just can't.
I'm getting flashbacks to not being able to stop myself from watching 'Date Movie' just cause Alyson Hannigan was in it. This isn't quite that bad (yet), but it's close.
Originally Posted by DRG
I just figured out I can't stand Parker Posey.
Sometimes life is hard, huh? I'm torn between hoping that it maybe gets retooled and becomes watchable and hoping that they just put it out of my misery and let everyone involved find work on something decent that's actually of some value. |
Originally Posted by DRG
I just figured out I can't stand Parker Posey.
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Rent "Party Girl". I have loved Posey since that movie.
This last episode was really bad. The awkward jokes about the people from Iowa were so clunky and lame. |
Watched the first two episodes just to catch how Lauren Ambrose would fare in a sitcom... and the show is pretty blah. Ambrose works much better in dramas and deserves better roles. She was good in "Starting out in the Evening".
While watching the first episode I had a feeling the house would be changed because the producers/writers would feel that a couple young single women in NY would work better in the middle of the city instead of the outskirts. Sure enough, they changed it to an apartment. It would give them more material perhaps. Now the apartment is a MONSTER. No way an editor can afford something so huge in NY. The only explanation I can come up with is that since Posey's character brought the idea/concept of Jezebel James to the author/publishing company, and since the book seems to be popular and a big seller, she got very well compensated for this. And maybe this will be brought up in an episode where Coco finds out about the big compensation and feels that she should get a cut since it originated from her anyways. |
Geez, I guess I'm the only person that liked the third episode.
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Originally Posted by Tracer Bullet
Geez, I guess I'm the only person that liked the third episode.
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Originally Posted by bigjim25
I liked that episode but they need to get rid of the laugh track. I know how to laugh. :lol:
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With the exception of the Chris Guest movies, I can't stand Parker Posey but I gave this a shot because of ASP... what a piece of shit. Worst laugh track in recent memory and it was pretty boring overall... Gilmore girls type dialogue but horrible execution.
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Buh-bye
http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.aspx?id=7589 FOX SAYS GOODBYE TO 'JEZEBEL JAMES' By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- It's the end of the road for "The Return of Jezebel James." FOX confirmed this afternoon it has pulled the plug on the freshman comedy. Repeats of "Bones" will return to the Friday, 8:00/7:00c hour beginning this week. The relocated "Canterbury's Law" will remain at 9:00/8:00c. Here's a recap: Fridays (March 28-April 11) 8:00/7:00c - "Bones" (Repeats) 9:00/8:00c - "Canterbury's Law" (New Time Period) Friday, April 18 8:00/7:00c - "House" (Repeat) 9:00/8:00c - "Canterbury's Law" (Season Finale) Fridays (as of April 25) 8:00/7:00c - "FOX Friday Night Movie" As for "James," it's not clear if FOX will make the four remaining produced installments available on its web site or elsewhere. The show's most recent airing posted an invisible 1.1 adults 18-49 rating where it barely edged out a repeat of "Grey's Anatomy" on ABC (1.0 rating) for fourth place in its time period. Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino were the executive producers of the series, a co-production of Regency Television and Fox Television Studios. |
Can't say I'm too sad to see it go. I think Parker wasn't right for the part, and the part wasn't right for anyone. Gotta lay the blame on ASP for this egg.
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