Salon.com > The Event

NBC picks up four new comedies, loses “Outsourced”

Fri, 13 May 2011 21:14:00 +0000

It's been a good week for "That 70's Show" alumni. First Ashton Kutcher got himself the world's sweetest gig taking over for Charlie Sheen on "Two and a Half Men," and now Laura Prepon (Donna) has just snagged the lead in one of NBC's four new comedies.

"Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea" has been adapted from Chelsea Handler's memoir into a scripted sitcom starring Prepon as Handler. So was Elizabeth Banks not available, or is there just a rule against appearing on too many NBC sitcoms in one year? Because as much as I loved her as Donna, I'm not sure Prepon can pull off Chelsea's wackiness.

Meanwhile, three other shows have been picked for the peacock's lineup, including "Free Agents," an American remake of a British comedy about the romantic lives of P.R. executives. Exciting! Hank Azaria and Kathryn Hahn star in the Americanized version along with Anthony Head (Giles from "Buffy"), who will be reprising his role from the original series.

Will “The Event” just get “Lost”?

Sat, 25 Sep 2010 23:01:00 +0000

Within the first few minutes of NBC's new serial drama "The Event" (Mondays at 9 p.m.), we're besieged by a rapid succession of cliffhangers: A hijacked plane is barreling out of the sky, toward the president's compound! A young woman disappears from her room on a cruise ship without a trace! Her family is attacked by a masked team firing guns! Her father turns out to be the pilot of the hijacked plane! Prisoners in a secret government facility talk in hushed tones about the consequences of the public finding out about … the event!

And through it all, we're treated to a steady flow of breathless dialogue the likes of which is aimed at keeping this serial drama in motion:

"Who are you and what do you want?!"

"Open the door! You don't have to do this!"

"They have a hidden agenda. I know it in my bones."

"You are my only conduit to the outside!"

"We have to protect ourselves. Can I count on you?"

"I haven't told you everything!"

These mysterious statements, obscure confessions and creepy generalities tend to fall into the same categories as those offered week after week on "Lost": 1) What's going on? 2) Who's in charge here? 3) What aren't they telling us? 4) Who is lying? 5) Why should I join/trust you? 6) How do we stop this catastrophe from happening?

Don’t miss these 9 new TV shows

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 14:01:00 +0000

Terrorists, assassins, superheroes, zombies, lizard-gnomes, filthy rich oil moguls and hapless marketing executives -- the fall TV lineup has them all! Don't let anyone give you the impression that you're in for the same old game of cops and lawyers this year. Sure, there are tons of shoot'em-ups and legal dramas on the horizon, too, but if you cast aside new spins on the same old formulas (Lawyers ... in Las Vegas! Detectives ... who used to be neurosurgeons!), you'll find a wealth of odd entertainments in store for you, from a mysterious prep school policed by hideous reptiles (Cartoon Network's "Tower Prep") to the real zombified housewives of Atlanta ("The Walking Dead").

Will any of these comedies and dramas be worth watching over the long haul? We'll put our money on the shows on this list with a grade A or better. The rest, we'll leave to the fickle whims of fate, merciless network executives, fatigued TV writers and huddled masses of viewers yearning to watch "Glee."

“The Event”

Fri, 03 Oct 2003 20:00:00 +0000

The problem with black comedy as a genre is that the people who make them tend to spend too much time congratulating themselves for being outré: They practically cover their movies with sticky notes just to make sure we've properly observed how much unconventional rhetoric they're getting away with.

But with "The Event," writer-director Thom Fitzgerald -- his previous feature was "The Hanging Garden" -- has managed to make a comedy about assisted suicide that hardly feels black at all. The movie has its share of problems: It feels long and ungainly when it should be swift and sharp. And there are too many places where Fitzgerald and his co-writers, Tim Marback and Steven Hillyer, use nails to drive home their message instead of simply letting the story and the characters carry it to us softly. We've gotten the point of the movie long before Olympia Dukakis, as the sympathetic mother of Don McKellar, a seriously ill man who has chosen when and how he wishes to die, intones, "In my world, love is above the law."