Cupid, "My Fair Masseuse": Baby, we were born to run?

ABC snuck the finale of the "Cupid" remake onto the schedule tonight. If you cared, hopefully you still had a DVR season pass like I did and caught it. (If not, have fun grappling with the ABC.com player.) Some thoughts on the finale, and the remake as a whole, coming up just as soon as I fix a sink...

If, like me, you were a fan of the original "Cupid," then you figured out pretty quickly that "My Fair Masseuse" was a remake of the Piven show's second episode, "The Linguist." This was part of ABC's attempt to keep the budget down, as Rob Thomas got paid less to rewrite his own script than he would have to write a brand-new one. But I give Rob credit for putting in an effort on a job he could have coasted through. Other than the bit about the linguist fixing his freshman roommate's sink -- specifically, the line "I grew up smaht in a paht of town where smaht got yer ass kicked" -- there wasn't much in the way of recycled dialogue, and the relationship took several different twists before ending up in the same place as the original. I'll still take Tim DeKay as my reformed Southie linguist, but I had fun watching this.

In fact, there was probably more recycling going on in the other borrowed plot from the original series, as Claire mistakenly came to believe that Trevor was a college professor who had slept with a student and gone nuts when the girl overdosed on sleeping pills. That's from the original pilot, and was one of the things whose absence from the new pilot was emblematic of one of the fundamental problems with the remake: too much of the Couple of the Week, not enough of Trevor and Claire.

The series had started to course correct on that in the last few episodes in early May. I kept meaning to write about "Left of the Dial," the previous original episode, and never did, but it was the first one that felt like it could have fit in comfortably with the original series.

By then, of course, it was too late. The show was already dead with ABC -- was, I'm guessing, dead within a week or two of its debut, in fact, based on the numbers and whatever was going on between the network and Thomas. (He hints about the problems in his answer to the question about working with Starz in the interview I did with him about "Party Down.") But let's leave the ratings, and the backstage drama, aside, and very quickly ask ourselves why the new "Cupid" didn't work at first, and whether, in a more patient, forgiving world, it might have been able to right itself.

Problem #1: Not enough Trevor and Claire. I have to assume this was a network push -- that someone at ABC felt the show's chief appeal was the matchmaking, and not the banter. But however well-executed those stories might have been (and they weren't always that great), it left viewers with no real hook to watch from week to week. The balance shifted a bit in the final episodes, so maybe that's a fight Thomas could have eventually won, had the ratings been better.

Problem #2: Not enough Trevor/Claire chemistry. This is a tougher problem to fix. Bobby Cannavale and Sarah Paulson were both fine on their own (though Paulson at times struggled to elevate Claire above her usual brittle WASP type), but the spark unfortunately wasn't there between them. You can't fake that.

Problem #3: Too much audience hand-holding. Again, I'm guessing this was from ABC, based on how so many of their other shows roll, with the hateful Please Laugh Now music and the way characters on all their series need to constantly monologue about their motivation for doing anything. I never felt like the romances had a chance to breathe, as we had to spend half of each storyline with the characters delivering exposition to Trevor. Part of this, I think, can also be pinned on Thomas and the other writers, who for some reason chose to build most of the episodes around two people with an established history who hadn't quite fallen in love yet. (It always felt like watching a play that began with the second act.)

I was probably harder on a couple of the episodes than I should have been, just based on my frustration with it not being as perfect as the original show. But "Cupid" 2.0 was, at best, flawed but sometimes entertaining, and I don't know that it could have ever risen above the chemistry problem. But I feel better about having watched it at the end than I suspected I would at the beginning.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Cupid, "Shipping Out": All she wants to do is dance (and make romance)

I'm not sure what the point of continuing to blog about the new "Cupid" is. The show is a misfire, and it's not going to come back next season, so it's not like commenting on some brilliant but doomed series, or suggesting ways that a bad show can improve itself next year. It's done, and it's done.

But for blog historical purposes, I feel like I should make an entry for each episode, and here to note that "Shipping Out" recycled one of the best jokes from the original series, with Trevor and Claire's discussion of how people fast-dance like they make love. (Complete with some fine funny dance moves from Bobby Cannavale.)

Beyond that? Nothing much to see here, folks, but talk about it if you want. Click here to read the full post

Cupid, "The Tommy Brown Affair": The mediocre escape

Quick spoilers for last night's "Cupid" coming up just as soon as I do the moonwalk...

I could go on for a while about all of the things wrong with this episode (starting with the way that neither guest star was believable as either suave jewel thief or hardened parole officer), and with the series in general (too much emphasis on the guests over Trevor/Claire, too much exposition, too much music), but what's the point? The show's doomed. It won't be back next season. ABC's just running out the string with it at this point, and depending on how the ratings were last night, I wouldn't be stunned to see the show get pulled for the rest of sweeps. (The best thing it has going for it is that "The Unusuals" also did badly when placed here, so maybe ABC thinks the timeslot's damaged goods till next season.) At this point, picking apart all of the remake's flaws feels like beating a dying horse.

That said, I do want to note that Bobby Cannavale continues to be really engaging as Trevor, and that he and Sarah Paulson have absolutely zero chemistry together -- and that, more than any of the problems with the structure of each episode, is why the show doesn't work.

"The Tommy Brown Affair" was the first episode since the pilot to give us a real concentrated dose of the two leads together, and unfortunately there's no there there -- no romantic spark, no comic spark, no sense that these two are a good team on any level. So where Paula Marshall and Paulson are playing basically the same character, with the same take on their most eccentric patient, Marshall's Claire came across as enjoying the give and take even when Trevor was being irritating, where Paulson's Claire just seems annoyed with him, all the time. And that's no fun.

I'm going to play out the string along with the show, out of nostalgia for the original(*), and out of hope that we might get some decent banter between now and the end of the run. But given how great the original show was, it's frustrating that the remake is so obviously deserving of its short-lived fate.

(*) Speaking of nostalgia, as several readers pointed out to me last week, Claire's assistant Josie is played by Anna Chlumsky, most famous as the underage lead from "My Girl," but who also appeared in "Meat Market," one of the funniest episodes of the original series.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Cupid, "The Great Right Hope": It's clobberin' time!

Spoilers for last night's "Cupid" coming up just as soon as I get a car that runs on eggshells...

"It's so nice to see you finally have a chemistry with someone!" -Claire's mom
"There's no chemistry!" -Claire

Well, if they're gonna make it that easy for me to review the episode...

This review's going to be heavy on comparisons to the original show for two reasons: first because the premise is vaguely similar to one of the best episodes of the original show, second because at this point I feel like my only reason to keep watching is the deep reservoir of affection I have for the old show, and my hope that the new one could eventually be more like it. If you didn't watch and/or don't care about comparisons the original, you want to skip this one.

The old "Cupid" had two things going for it. Most obvious was the white-hot chemistry between Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshall, who were so good together -- and so funny together -- that the show could get away on occasion with devoting entire acts to nothing but Trevor and Claire bantering. But almost as important were those moments of magic between the couple of the week, those declarations of love or discoveries that made the show feel like something much more than just a '90s version of "The Love Boat." I'm talking about the linguist dropping his cultured accent to quote Springsteen at his blue-collar lady love, or the dancer and his wife rekindling their passion while sashaying through a natural history museum exhibit, or, of course, Trevor's "perfect match" turning out to be about organ donation and not romance.

So far, I'm not getting either of those things from the new show. Bobby Cannavale and Sarah Paulson are on screen together so rarely, and given so little banter, that I honestly have no idea how much chemistry they might have if the episodes were being structured like the original, where Trevor and Claire always were more prominent than the couple of the week. And when we do see them alone together, like in the episode's final scene, Paulson sometimes plays Claire's dislike of Trevor too strongly. (You could see how much effort it was for her to be polite to Trevor, even after he'd been nice to her.) Any suggestion, as Claire's mom made, that they might be a couple, seems there only because that's what's expected from the show, not because of anything the two stars have shown to date.

Meanwhile, the writing of the couples hasn't been much stronger. We somehow made it more than 15 minutes into "The Great Right Hope" before Lee Tergesen and Constance Zimmer actually got to talk to each other on camera; there was a lot of "tell, don't show" before that, with the kid and Trevor watching them from afar and discussing what was happening between the two. I'd have been fine with that pacing if the early screen time had gone to Trevor and Claire, but instead it felt like someone (my guess is the network) wanted to make sure the audience thoroughly understood the backstory and the conflict before the guest stars shared a real scene, and so we had to waste a lot of time on exposition.

And while there were some nice moments, particularly Tergesen playing the dad's reaction to finding out this boy he liked so much was the son he never knew existed, we never got that magic moment I was hoping for. There was an opportunity to do something cool with the documentary the mom had made, but instead it played like a campaign ad for Tergesen's first bid for Congress.

Given that the ratings make it unlikely this "Cupid" will be around next season, and my nostalgia for the original, I might as well ride the train to the end. But three weeks in, I'm still waiting for a bead to move.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Cupid, "Live And Let Spy": Private eyes are watching you

Spoilers for last night's "Cupid" coming up just as soon as I shuck some oysters...

I was lukewarm on the pilot, in part because I felt the couple of the week weren't interesting enough to justify taking so much time away from Trevor and Claire, in part because it was odd to see Bobby Cannavale and Sarah Paulson having to do so much material (and abbreviated material, at that) from the original pilot. But there were enough good things in it that I was hopeful for later episodes.

"Live and Let Spy," on the other hand, I just disliked.

Again, Trevor and Claire get backburnered in favor of not only the new couple, but a Felix and Lita story. The original show never felt like the "Love Boat" because we were so invested in the story of the main characters, but so far they're appearing so infrequently -- and appearing together even less -- that I'm having trouble caring about them as individuals or as a duo. When Riley told them to "get a room already," it felt like the script had to tell us that Trevor and Claire are supposed to be attracted to each other, because we've been shown precious little evidence of it.

And however thin I found the romantic story last week, it had at least had some engaging touches (the songs, Marguerite Moreau playing Dance Dance Revolution, the way the show dispensed with Holly in about 30 seconds rather than dragging it out). Other than some nice chemistry between Erik Palladino (aka Dave Malucci from "ER") and Julie Ann Emery, this one felt both dull and contrived. They so obviously got along, and so quickly, that all the switches and double switches about spying and secrets just dragged. (Also, why is a modern private eye having photo prints delivered to his door? Wouldn't he just print them himself -- or, better, just look at them on the computer?)

And after getting over the weirdness of seeing Mary Stuart Masterson doing an episodic guest spot(*) -- and in the B-story, no less -- there wasn't a lot to hold onto with the Felix and Lita story. I like both Rick Gomez and Camille Guaty -- and I was amused to see Luis from "Sesame Street" as their dad -- but so far they aren't adding much to the show. As superfluous as Champ often was on the original, he at least gave Trevor another person to bounce off of in situations where it wouldn't make sense to use Claire. Here, we're getting Felix instead of Trevor, not with him.

(*) Her IMDb entry shows she's actually done most of her work in TV lately, but it's either been as a series regular or in a long recurring stint, like on "Law & Order: Sports Utility Vehicle."

I still have enough residual affection for the old show that I'm going to stick around a while, but I don't feel like the new series is off to a strong start.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Cupid, "Pilot": Oceans apart

Spoilers for the debut of "Cupid" 2.0 coming up just as soon as I visit the Temple of Eros...

"What are you doing?" -Dave
"Teaching this youngster how we used to kick it in the mid-'90s." -Madeline

I said a lot of what I had to say about the pilot my review of the new "Cupid" in today's column, in which I tried my best not to make too many comparisons to the original. But since this is a blog, and one where I spent a lot of time last year dissecting the Jeremy Piven version, I think it's only fair to, just this once, talk about how one looks in relation to the other. I'll try not to do this too much -- though I doubt I'll be able to avoid it when they do the episode remaking the original series' "The Linguist" -- but it seems unavoidable at the start to discuss how they kicked it the mid-'90s versus how they're kickin' it today.

First up, I should say I like Bobby Cannavale and Sarah Paulson quite a bit. They take different approaches to their characters than Piven and Paula Marshall did, as you would expect and probably want them to, but they make it work. Cannavale's Trevor seems more sweet and childlike than Piven's aggressive take on the character. (Piven might have led an "All You Need Is Love" singalong, but he would have been a lot angrier doing it.) Paulson, meanwhile, seems more sharp-edged than Marshall, which in turn balances nicely against Cannavale's gentler Trevor.

My issue is that I have little idea how well they're going to work together because, as discussed in the column, the show kept cutting away -- particularly in the second half -- to focus on the new Dave and Madeline. I don't know if people who haven't seen the original (or, at least, haven't watched it lately) would have the same reaction, but the Trevor/Claire material that we did get felt like the abridged version of the same scenes a decade ago; the plot content was there, but not the material on the margins that made it sparkle before.

Now, one of my complaints about the original "Cupid" pilot was that its version of Dave and Madeline (George Newbern and Connie Britton, in an entirely different plot) didn't get much screentime themselves. And that's always going to be a tricky balance between the regulars and the anthological guest stars. But I think in the first episode, it's more important to get to know the people who will be around every week instead of the ones who get a happy ending and never turn up again. And since Dave/Madeline '09 wasn't as inspired a story as some of the best ones from the original show, I got particularly frustrated that Trevor and Claire kept being pushed to the margins.

I'll give that story one bit of praise: where the original pilot had Trevor being correct and Claire being wrong, this one starts out the other way, then has them team up in the end. Because it's so easy for Claire to come off as the wet blanket, I think it's very smart to establish from the jump that she really does know what she's talking about with romance, and that she can sometimes be more perceptive than Trevor.

As for the rest of it, I like both Rick Gomez (older brother to Josh "Morgan" Gomez from "Chuck") and Camille Guaty (aka the original Maricruz on "Prison Break"), but I don't see the point in replacing the original show's Champ -- whom the writers didn't know what to do with half the time as it is -- with two different characters. But I'm happy to see Joe Lo Truglio from "The State"(*) (and, starting tomorrow night, a regular on "Reno 911") as one of the singles group members. I assume he'll be one of the ones, like Paul Adelstein on the original, who hangs around a long time because he can't find a girlfriend.

(*) Here's Lo Truglio trying to order a chicken sandwich. Good times.

Anyway, that's it for the one-to-one comparisons for a while, I hope.

What did everybody -- whether you watched the original show or not -- think? Click here to read the full post

'Cupid' review - Sepinwall on TV

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. Click here to read the full post

New 'Cupid' is a go

A source close to the production on the "Cupid" remake confirmed what Nikki Finke and Kristin have reported: ABC just picked it up to series. (They're also reporting several other pick ups, which I don't know about.)

I've been excited for this ever since it was first announced, and especially once Bobby Cannavale was cast in the Jeremy Piven role. Now it feels like all that time I spent watching the original "Cupid" during the strike will come in handy when it comes time to look at the new series. I still don't know if it will work, but as I've said over and over since the new version was announced, the ABC of 2008 (or, in this case, 2009) is far better equipped to launch a show like this than the ABC of 1998 was. Click here to read the full post

Cupid finds a Claire

Phase two of casting the "Cupid" remake is complete, as Sarah Paulson has been cast to play Claire, the shrink whose job is to "cure" Bobby Cannavale's Trevor/Cupid.

While I didn't enjoy Paulson on "Studio 60," I think that was much more a matter of an unplayable part than any reflection of her, and I've liked her in many other roles. Like Paula Marshall as the original Claire, she can come off as brittle and kind of a killjoy, but she also has some comic chops to offset that when the script calls for it. And I have to assume that she and Cannavale sparked well off each other, as I've always said that the most important aspect of finding a Claire was to see how well the actress played with Cupid.

Like all of ABC's pilots that aren't "Life on Mars," the new "Cupid" is on a delayed production schedule and is under consideration for midseason. Click here to read the full post

We have our Cupid: Bobby Cannavale

Well, we now have one half of our "Cupid" remake equation: Bobby Cannavale has been cast in the title role.

Cannavale isn't one of the many names that got tossed around whenever we discussed it here on the blog (Alan Tudyk, Matthew Perry, Paul Rudd), no doubt because he hasn't had a very high profile of late. His last few pilots didn't get picked up, and other than "Snakes On a Plane," he's either worked on Broadway or in very small-scale movies recently.

But when I heard the name, I finally had my "eureka!" moment. They still need to find an actress who can play as well against him as Paula Marshall did with Jeremy Piven, but having seen a lot of Cannavale over the years -- everything from "Third Watch" to "Oz" to "Kingpin" to "The Station Agent" to his role as Funky Spunk on "Sex and the City" -- I have no doubt he can play all of the colors required for Trevor Hale.

He can be manic, annoying and yet charming (see the "Can I come?" scene from "Station Agent"), charismatic, vulnerable, funny, etc. He's a couple of years older than Piven was at the time, and more classically handsome -- which I know some people said would be a concern, since a hunky Trevor would create lots of "Why should I date your friend when I can date you?" problems with his potential targets -- but enough of a chameleon that he can downplay it when needed.

Still miles to go before we can sleep on the idea of the remake being on the air, but this is a very positive step, as far as I'm concerned.

What does everybody else think? Click here to read the full post