Reviews

Maybe it's my bias for John McGinley and his talent or maybe it's because of Skylar Astin's John Cusack's likable underdog persona, but I want this show to be good. My concern is that my subjectivity for these actors is blurring my objectivity for the artistic and comedic reality of the show. I'm worried that the show has started off in a direction that will suspend it in mediocrity.

Although there is minimal content to work from at this moment, only 2 episodes, it is concerning when the writers take a fairly cookie cutter approach with the characters, concept and writing. There is talent in this cast, and i am hoping that the writing will take advantage of that soon- for who knows how long the half-life is for new sitcoms in today's audience.

Initially I find a lack of depth in the characters. They have easily discernible, rigid roles that define the standard sitcom world- protagonist, love interest, demanding boss- and it can easily lead to one dimensional, bounded characters. Take Harvard, through two episodes he has been established as a pseudo antagonist to Brody, and that's it. Every scene is the same jealous angle from him. Couple this with too many scripted jokes and obvious punch lines and you get a muddled experience from your initial viewing. There was just too much obviousness, low level wit. But there were moments, in McGinley's style and Astin's delivery, that offer promise and should give you a reason to give this show a look.

Today's audience is more intelligent and more demanding than ever. There has to be more than what's directly written and seen for them to want to tune back in. Subtlety in humor, interwoven story arcs that cross paths later in an episode to give it depth, intelligence and curiosity about what will develop. I didn't get that so far from this show, but I want to. The lead characters have the ability to make this show more than what people saw so far. I just hope the writers quickly take the training wheels off and let the characters develop and create a more organic, believable, witty world from the Ground Floor on up. 72 / 100

So I was rather skeptical approaching the idea of ever reading this series, let alone seeing the films. Yet here I sit putting my thoughts down about such things. In any case, what I have been reaffirmed of is that that movies barely distill the essence of the story that the book gives you.

First off, I would have to agree that casting was pretty spot on. Robert Pattinson fits the role perfectly in both appearance and substance; he is not overly muscular and suited for this role (call me odd but a buff vampire just seems unbecoming since it is unnecessary given the arsenal of weapons and skills they already have).

Where my criticism, and more so disappointment, comes in is the lack of depth the movie provides. There are just too many nuances to rate it high. Character establishment was very good and accurate to the novel, but the development of them characters, especially to each other, was rushed and very superficial. The movie makes you assume a lot and imply connections based on one . The arguments between Bella and Edwaard provide so much clarity and connect them. Some of the story lines were shortened, passed over, or out of ordered.

All in all, there was a lot of promise for this movie, but it fell through. The plot was followed well, but could have been better, the characters were introduced well but not developed. Even though it is a 2hour movie, it needed to be another hour long to adequately encompass the depth of story created by Meyer. So you'll like the movie, just less if you've read the books first.