In today's column, I review the resurrected
"Cupid," the original of which I spent a lot of time watching early last year:
Every now and then, you'll hear a story about a couple who met at an early age, couldn't make it work for one reason or another, then reunited years or even decades later and got their long-delayed happily ever after. "Cupid," ABC's remake of the short-lived series of the same name from 10 years ago, has a chance to be one of those stories, only I'm not yet sure if it should.
You can
read my review of "Cupid" here. Back tonight with a separate post that goes more deeply into the Cupid '98 vs. Cupid '09 stuff than I wanted to do in the review itself.
In today's column, I review the resurrected "Cupid," the original of which I spent a lot of time watching early last year:
22 comments:
I haven't read all of the posts in this thread, but I just wanted to say I'm not optimistic, if only because ABC has not been promoting this at all, as far as I can tell. I've seen lots of promos for "Castle", "Better Off Ted" and "The Unusuals", but diddly/squat for "Cupid".
Are they promoing it during Dancing with the Stars, maybe?
Yes, they are.
And during Samantha Who? (and earlier during Ugly Betty). I think that's the audience they're going for.
It's not just about the audience they're going for, but the lead-in. I've seen tons of "The Unusuals" ads, but that's because I watch "Lost" every week, and it'll have "Lost" as its lead-in. I don't watch "Dancing," so I haven't seen many (or any) "Cupid" ads.
Cupid never aired opposite Seinfeld. Seinfeld went off the air in May of '98 and Cupid aired in the '98-'99 season. I think when it was on Thursdays it aired against Frasier and Veronica's Closet.
Alan,
I don't think Seinfeld and Cupid ever overlapped. Seinfeld ended in May of 98 (I was living in TX at the time) and I remember watching Cupid when I was living in CT (in the Fall of 98). Sorry.
Both Anonymous and Denis are correct. Memory playing tricks. I fixed it in the column.
I liked the pilot, but the problem is that I only liked it kinda, and I am exactly, precisely the kind of indulgent person they need to love the show. If it only works on me about 70-30, I'm concerned that's as well as it will work on anyone.
But it was still fun, and I still enjoyed it.
From what I've seen in the commercials, it looks like pretty much the exact same Trevor/Claire, just with different actors. I'm not sure what to make of that, if it's good or bad.
I'm not optomistic, either, after reading that ABC demanded more focus on the weekly couples and less on Clare and Trevor.
Seriously, what worked for me about the original series was the relationship between Clare and Trevor. What's the point if they have to play second fiddle to the guest stars? What is this, The Love Boat 2009?
Please, Alan. Are you forgetting how mediocre the original Cupid pilot was?
Please, Alan. Are you forgetting how mediocre the original Cupid pilot was?
Yes, Anna. I've forgotten every single detail of the original "Cupid" pilot.
BURN!
That's exactly my point, Alan. I remembered your review, and I remembered you saying how the original Dave and Madeline were one of the least interesting couples ever on the show, and how the only conflict in their relationship comes three-quarters of the way through and is resolved almost immediately. And now your complaint again with the new pilot is with the couple-of-the-week, so how is this really different?
That they spend too much time on the not-so-interesting couple and not enough on Trevor and Claire.
OK, I see. And I'll actually see for myself in about twenty minutes. But I personally think the original pilot was mediocre (it was "The Linguist" that hooked me).
I can't wait to see how they redo "the Linguist" episode. I remembered it even before Alan did his strike survival review.
I will be curious to see the opinions of those who have seen the original versus those who didn't.
I guess I was one of the few people that was in love with the original show. I was shocked to see another show stole the same concept but then found out after a quick google search it's the same show.
Oh well, this one seems lighter then I remember the original which felt more mature. I won't stick around to watch it but I'm sure I'll catch a few episodes.
Is there any doubt that Claire is the mortal Psyche? A mortal woman who cannot see the true nature of her husband god. While I can appreciate the setup for a potential wedding between Claire and Trevor at the end of the series, I thought it was a bit irritating that they visited the Psyche story a SECOND time within the same hour.
But I have to admit, whereas I normally don't care for Cannavale, I do enjoy his Trevor.
I actually like the idea of Claire as Psyche, that's somewhere they never got to on the original.
There was a lot of fan speculation at the time of the original that Trevor and Claire would be the 100th couple, and that he would have to choose between her and Mt. Olympus, that he would have to become mortal to stay with her, all sorts of variations on those ideas. Of course, they never even got to the 15th couple, so that became a non-issue, though they went somewhere near that with one of the episodes (Trevor finds a woman who is a good fit for him, but he can't go through with it because he so desperately wants to go home).
Let's move the discussion over to the blog-style pilot review, okay?
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