Because I’m No Better Than Anybody Else
…you’re gonna get my occasional thoughts on the new TV season. Tonight, I tried ‘Joey’ and ‘Medical Investigation.’
Most of the reviews I’ve seen of ‘Joey’ have it pretty much right: Joey is Joey, and Joey is still pretty funny. But as a blogger called Defamer pointed out in a preview, there is a bit of reliance on a certain rhythm for the jokes:
“So that Joey won’t have to go it alone, the writers put Joey’s sister Gina (Drea DeMatteo) in LA…she’s provided with a comically-expedient recent tit job, on which both Joey and nephew Michael are compelled to constantly comment. The pacing of jokes goes something like this: Joey’s dumb, Gina’s tits…Joey’s dumb, Joey’s dumb, Gina’s tits. Gina’s tits. Whoa! Hot neighbor…Joey’s dumb, Gina’s tits.”
And The New York Times is not wrong when they say that the writers haven’t quite found the voices of the new characters yet. So they’re leaning on Mr. Tribiani, who of course they already know how to write. This results in Joey getting one or two comebacks that sound more like echoes of his Friends than the boy-man we came to love.
Yeah, I said it.
I’ve been trying to remember what I thought of ‘Frasier,’ the most obvious point of comparision, when the pilot aired. But it’s hard to “unlearn” all we came to know about the characters and the talents of the actors in the years that followed. IIRC, it took me until well into the second season to learn to love that show, so I’m willing to give ‘Joey’ a little time too. Dunno if it’ll be watch-every-episode time (it wasn’t with ‘Fraiser’ the first time around), but, like I said…Joey is Joey. And Joey is still pretty funny.
ETA: Although, there is some question of just how much can be discovered within Mr. Tribiani, formerly one of the most shallow of a group not alltogether known for their depth.
‘Medical Investigation’ had a harder time holding my attention. That same New York Times article linked above tells you everything you need to know about it: “A scene in which Dr. Stephen Connor (Neal McDonough) is plucked away by helicopter from his son’s Little League game by crisis (people in New York are turning blue and collapsing) establishes him as a brilliant, arrogant and emotionally stunted workaholic.”
That’s right, folks, it’s ‘Quincy–2004!’
Maybe worth another look if you’re surfing and there’s nothing else good on, but I wouldn’t make it “appointment TV” or anything.
