Midseason Series Reviews Part Deux

CBS

Love Monkey
(Tuesday at 10:00)
Grade : A-
Tom Farrell(Tom Cavanaugh; Ed) is a sucessful A&R rep at a large music corporation. He lives music, literally, music is his life, and he has a “golden ear” for what is good. In the process of trying to get a talented singer/songwriter to sign with the label, he speaks his mind about what he thinks the label should be, and is fired for it. His girlfriend at the same time comes to the realization that Tom is not who she’s looking for and dumps him. He then tries to start his own label and continues to pursue the talent. Eventually he realizes he should be letting the talent do what’s best for them and not what’s best for him. Tom then gets offered a job at a small label run by a friend, who’s happened to have signed the guy he was after.

I really like this show. I never watched Ed much, but apparently Tom’s character is similar in many respects to Ed. Which if true, it’s too bad I never watched Ed. The supporting cast is excellent, it’s good to see Judy Greer and Jason Priestley. The writing seems good, and the music is excellent. It seems as though no reviewer can write about this show without making a comparison to High Fidelity, which for better or for worse, it does seem to draw some inspiration from, most especially the music snob slant of Tom’s tastes. I guess because I’m a bit of a music snob myself, I can relate to many of Tom’s observations about the “biz.” Maybe I just hope that there is someone out there like Tom, looking for the next great sound, not just the next Big Thing.

ABC

Crumbs
(Thursday at 9:30)
Grade: C+
Mitch (Fred Savage; The Wonder Years) is a “famous” screenwriter who had escaped his family after the traumatic death of his older brother. He returns home to help out after his mom (Jane Curtin) is released from the mental hospital for attempting to run down their father (William Devane) with a car. His father has left his mother and is having a baby with his new girlfriend. His brother still resents him for running away. Did I mention his family runs a restaurant? Mitch is in the closet, his brother Jody (the Chef) is a player, and his father secretly does the books for the restaurant when not at his new job as a new-agey massage therapist. And his mother is still crazy.

As far as sitcoms go, Crumbs is pretty decent. There were some good laughs, and the cast seems to work as a dysfunctional family should. The show was based on the creator’s actual family and events that happened to them, so at least the premise has a smidge of truth to it. It remains to be seen whether it will fall into typical sitcom plots and jokes, or will it rise above and be truly a show for the ages. (My money’s on the first one)

Added 11:22 PM, 01/19/06: BTW, the laughtrack on Crumbs is horrible intrusive.