The Return of Jezebel James: Pilot + Frankenstein Baby
By fred | March 16, 2008
(S01E01+E02) So Friday on Fox premiered the latest show from Amy Sherman-Palladino, creator of Gilmore Girls. As any fan of Gilmore Girls I assume, when I first heard of the return of ASP to TV I was excited, and so I wanted to check this new show out. But I have to say, the premise sounded a little odd to me, for a sitcom : it’s about two sisters who haven’t spoken to each others in 10 years or so, one of them wants a baby but can’t have one, so she asks her sister to move in with her and carry her child.
I don’t know, that just sounds odd for a sitcom, to throw much character evolution and the burden of a baby. What I mean is, it will require the show to evolve and find a new dynamic all the time, and since finding one that works ans keeping it running is already not an easy task, it seems like a real tough job, but why not.
So I finally got the see the two first episodes that aired Friday, and I have to say : what a disappointment that was! It really wasn’t good, or funny. And I have heard a few critics about the show, that mostly seemed to “blame” Parker Posey and her interpretation of Sarah. It’s not that I disagree completely, but I don’t think it’s that easy.
Yes, there is a problem with Parker Posey. Basically she is trying way too hard. She should be Sarah, and instead she seems to be constantly trying to figure out how to be her and how Sarah should be and act and talk, and in the end the result is more painful than it is funny. It’s nothing new that one of the first rule of comedy, is that you have to make it look incredibly easy and natural.
You need to have the right tone, to say the right words at the right time and your flow is important cause it can help and ruin the material, regardless of how good it is to begin with. It’s not easy, but when the audience looks at it it must look easy, like you’re not even trying, just doing. Posey is absolutely not here, and it shows, and it’s almost painful to watch.
I know she can be great in comedy, she was in a little movie that I recommend to anyone, The House Of Yes, which I thought was great. But here, she doesn’t seem to have find her voice, or Sarah’s voice, and it is a real problem. Also, I don’t know if she’s trying to give her an accent or something, but it doesn’t suit the character at all, gets (a little) annoying, and only get Sarah to appear quite pretentious, or obnoxious, which doesn’t suit her at all.
But Posey is not the only one at fault here, and it would be unfair to pretend so. I love Sherman-Palladino and the writing done on Gilmore Girls was nothing but brilliant, we all know that. But here, this is simply not the case. The writing is far from being as good, and so many times does things appear to be forced, again trying too hard to get to a joke out.
Here’s an example : at some point Coco, Sarah’s sister, shows up at her work. Both Sarah and her assistant Buddy are looking at Coco and he goes on to say that “she looks so… dirty. Oh My God I want her to have my baby!” Now does this really sound like anything one would say, or just something that allowed the “joke”, that Sarah could then reply “Get in line!” I don’t think this is funny, but trying too hard to get a joke. Don’t trust the laugh tracks.
Oh yeah, another real problem of the show is that is uses laugh tracks. This is soooo annoying, probably even more so because it’s not actually funny, but laugh tracks should be banned from TV shows nowadays. It used to be cool (did it?) but now we really have moved on to other things, and if there’s one thing we don’t need when watching a sitcom, it’s to be told when to laugh. If it’s funny, we’ll laugh, we don’t need anyone to tell us it’s funny, that’s actually a sign it was not.
And the worst part if that it can also break the rhythm of the show, and if ASP writing is known for something is for being different than anything else you find on TV. There’s a lot more of it, and actors needs to find the way to go through it all and make it work. It’s almost like a song, it has its on flow and it should not be interrupted every so often by a blank or a laughs track, it actually ruins everything.
Though again, to be fair that’s not the only time such interruptions occurred on the show. One scene has Sarah on the phone with her father, who mentions that she is in her late 30’s. Of course she interrupts him to correct him : mid, mid 30’s. Well, or she should have interrupted him, but instead he paused to let her do her one-word line. God how awful was that?!
Maybe this could have been funny, but in order to work they needed to have her to talk over him, to cut him off to correct him. It was either a split-screen with both of the on screen at the same time, or just one and we only hear the other one, at the other end of the line. Instead, they cut the dad after he said “late”, back to a shot of Sarah in her office, just saying “mid”, then it cuts back to the dad, finishing his sentence “30’s”.
That is complete pure crap, it makes it look like the guy actually paused to let her say her line, it ruins the whole thing and creates a scene that, when looked at, can only have people to wonder why this sounds so bad.
Posey might not seem to be a good casting choice for the role, or to still haven’t found how to play her, but a lot of things don’t work either. I hope it will improve with time, but the show won’t have that much time : only 7 episodes were completed, and Fox clearly doesn’t have faith in the show, putting it on a Friday night. Maybe all seven episodes will air, but that’s all the show can hope for…
Posted in Reviews
Shows: The Return Of Jezebel James
I completely agree. I was thinking all those things while watching the show. Gilmore Girls was my favorite show of all time and I am so disappointed in this show. Parker Posey seemed forced and sounds awkward the whole time. The laugh track is also unbearable.