Nicole Yates Guest-clacks at CliqueClack for the first time today. Nicole is a walking encyclopedia of useless television knowledge. Now she shares her thoughts with you.
I love Tom Cavanagh. I was a huuuge fan of Ed, and I love the short-lived Love Monkey. Ed got screwed over by NBC on a constant basis and Love Monkey was a great idea but it seemed like a show with too many chiefs and not enough Indians (CBS wanted to promote stuff within it and various record labels wanted to promote their shit-tastic “artists” on the show as well. It became all very complex and stupid.). Plus they never seemed to fully commit to it. Odd. Anyway, I’m a big fan of the guy and his acting so I was super excited when I heard he would be back in TNT’s Trust Me.
And then I saw the pilot.
Let me first say I think, and have always thought, that Eric McCormack is a one trick pony. Yes, he was great on Will & Grace, but I always got the feeling that was his range and there wasn’t much beyond that. When he barks out the line to Tom’s character, Connor, “I’ve been carrying you so long I’ve got scoliosis,” I knew, unfortunately, I was correct. While the line itself was obviously written by whomever wrote this episode, the delivery was a Will & Grace fight all the way. Paging Debra Messing.
That’s not the only problem I have here.
Cavanagh has no purpose. Yeah, he’s the writer but there’s really no backstory; no story at all. He seems to like to drink and get laid. He storms out and then takes naps. But is he an asshole? Or is he just a big kid? It’s not very clear but it is also not played out in a fun way.
I have heard that this pilot was redone and you can tell there are serious problems within the script. I think, honestly, that if it was reworked to be Cavanagh as an advertising guy and maybe McCormack just as his boss who has to sort of corral him once in awhile, it would work better. I feel no “best buddies” feelings towards them; there seems to be no chemistry.
So much happens but does not happen in this pilot, it’s hard to even know what is going on towards the end. Cavanagh jets to meeting before everyone else but seems to get there after they started? Is Cavanagh still in his old position but his friend McCormack is the boss? Then how to do they work together? None of this makes sense.
I really hate to judge a whole series based on a pilot because it is hard to set everything up in an hour (or half hour) and the writers usually need at least a half season in order to really find their feet and gel as a staff, but this pilot was messy and I hope the rest of the episodes are more coherent and, well, just all around better.
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Jan 29, 2009 @ 11:01 EST5EDT
Nice review. I like the “not mentioning Mad Men” part the best ;-)
You irritated me with jumping from Cavanagh to McCormack and back within two paragraphs though ;-)
Anyway, all in all you nailed the reasons why the pilot felt off for me too. There was no development for either of the two leads, they didn’t connect and honestly Jason O’Mara stole the whole show. Once he was gone, all life (literally) left. And Monica Potter? What was her purpose? So she’s a bitch – and her last boss didn’t want to take her back… so what kept her in her last job in the first place? Still she showed more emotions than McCormack/Cavanagh. And Tim Russ? He’s got more talent in his liddle finger than Will.
It’s really nice to read a review that focuses on the show’s own weakness instead of comparing the underlying story to some other show that’s lightyears better. “Trust Me” will fail on it’s on I guess if they don’t get some chemistry in there. Fast.