Tuesday, October 7, 2008

With each new television season comes unexpected finds and expected disasters...

I just watched the series premiere of The Ex List, which premiered Friday, as well as the series premiere of Kath & Kim, which premieres this upcoming Thursday.

One was surprisingly good. The other was almost too painful to watch.

Let's start with the bad. Kath & Kim's reviews have been awful. I don't always have mainstream taste, though, so I don't always go by reviews, although I definitely use them to get an idea of what I'm dealing with. Kath & Kim is based on an Aussie series of the same name, which I've never seen, and while many foreign imports are not disastrous by any means, this show was not funny and the two main characters had little to no redeeming qualities. Self-absorbed, conceited, misanthropes I can take (House? The Bluth family anyone?) Sitcoms that not only do not make me laugh but leave me cringing and rolling my eyes are unforgiveable.

I was pleasantly surprised by The Ex List, however. The premise, a woman who is told by a psychic that she has to marry within a year or she will never marry and that her soul mate is one of many men she has already dated, did not intrigue me at first. And then there was behind-the-scenes drama and changes before the show even hit the air, which can spell trouble. Or it can spell improvement. Plus, I wasn't entirely a fan of Elizabeth Reaser on her guest stint on Grey's Anatomy. But I don't have any other shows I'm currently watching on Friday nights, so I relented and decided to give this show (based on another foreign show, this one from Israel, by the way) a chance. Reaser's character is appealing. Her friends and family and her relationships with them feel real. She feels real. And the first episode actually made me tear up a bit. It was actually one of the better pilot episodes I've seen - it didn't feel crammed, it didn't feel super exposition-y, and I think it really set the tone and feeling of the story and characters of this show...I want to see what happens next!

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