Sarah Reeves Merrin (Jennifer Love Hewitt) is in New York searching for her birth father with only a name. She goes to her late birth mother's apartment from twenty years ago. After paying moneygrubbing building super Cecilia Wiznarski (Pauley Perrette), she finds the apartment occupied by starving actress Romy Sullivan (Jennifer Garner). Her search hits a dead end with Broadway impresario Archer Fitzwith but she decides to stay. Archer directs her to work for the Halloways and the arrogant rich guy Spencer Halloway. John Maguire works at a nearby record shop. Sullivan likes hottie ladies' man neighbor J.B. Maguire, his friend Jocelyn House, and Merrin all work in a nearby bar.
The show starts out with a compelling personal premise and then almost immediately drops it like a hot potato. It's a brutal start when the show essentially starts again with a much less compelling premise of finding herself. By the time it returns to the father issue, the show has already been canceled and the episodes do not get aired. The young cast are charismatic. It's easy to see their future stardom. It's really the only reason to watch this. Love is arguably the top star coming out of Party of Five. This star vehicle simply sputtered until it stalled. On the other hand, the characters are not always appealing. I still root for them but they are so dumb. They talk too much and say the wrong things. They often do stupid things for no reason. It would be fine for a sitcom but for a drama, it makes the characters look like idiots. The Cyrano DMs are cringeworthy but at least, it's kind of funny. It's a lot. By the time we get to the pyramid scheme and the temp agency stories, I have about enough of the idiocy. The more infuriating aspect is that Merrin's singing and Maguire's guitar playing sets up the show with a long running premise. Maybe, it would be the driving premise in future seasons. Overall, the writing is bad. I love the actors but not always the characters. The basic premise is problematic when the starting premise is so compelling. Merrin doesn't even make a list of her mother's friends at the time.
The show starts out with a compelling personal premise and then almost immediately drops it like a hot potato. It's a brutal start when the show essentially starts again with a much less compelling premise of finding herself. By the time it returns to the father issue, the show has already been canceled and the episodes do not get aired. The young cast are charismatic. It's easy to see their future stardom. It's really the only reason to watch this. Love is arguably the top star coming out of Party of Five. This star vehicle simply sputtered until it stalled. On the other hand, the characters are not always appealing. I still root for them but they are so dumb. They talk too much and say the wrong things. They often do stupid things for no reason. It would be fine for a sitcom but for a drama, it makes the characters look like idiots. The Cyrano DMs are cringeworthy but at least, it's kind of funny. It's a lot. By the time we get to the pyramid scheme and the temp agency stories, I have about enough of the idiocy. The more infuriating aspect is that Merrin's singing and Maguire's guitar playing sets up the show with a long running premise. Maybe, it would be the driving premise in future seasons. Overall, the writing is bad. I love the actors but not always the characters. The basic premise is problematic when the starting premise is so compelling. Merrin doesn't even make a list of her mother's friends at the time.