tvview.tv - Daily Television Magazine - Primetime TV Listings Guide, News, Reviews, Chat, Blog.

Editor's TV Show Reviews

Click Here To Return To tvview.tv Editor's Reviews Menu

 Eastwick

 

(July 12th, 2009.  Editor)                Rebecca Romijn, Lindsay Price, Jamie Ray Newman, Paul Gross, Sara Rue, Veronica Cartwright, Johann Urb, Jon Bernthal and Ashley Benson star in the offbeat Romantic Drama, Eastwick, airing Wednesdays this fall on ABC.

 

Based on the popular movie “The Witches of Eastwick” and on the novel of the same title by John Updike, three very different women find themselves drawn together by a mysterious man and the arrival of unique powers in each of them. Their small New England town, that already has a deep history of witchcraft, will never be the same, when the three very dissimilar women each stop for a moment to toss a coin into a fountain in the town square and make a wish. The combined powers of the three suddenly are unleashed. For the first time in their lives, each of the women is thinking and doing things that they never would have thought or done before. Just when they think things can't get odder, an eccentric and very wealthy man arrives in town and each of the three women find themselves drawn to him.

 

The pilot episode of the series stays close to the book and the movie versions, introducing the three very opposite female leading characters and a very provocative leading man. While that makes for a pretty good first episode, I fail to see what the draw will be for an audience to return here for 21 more weekly visits this season. There is a style and a quality about this series that may attract the same audience as "Desperate Housewives", but even that series is having trouble keeping an audience with their off the wall antics and sexually charged scripts.

 

Series stars Rebecca Romijn, Lindsay Price, Jamie Ray Newman and Paul Gross can all be commended for arriving on the small screen with characters and performances that pay tribute to the film roles, but also make each of the four leading characters their own. Gross in particular quickly outperforms his supporting cast, but his bravado will quickly turn to over-acting if the writers do not continues to provide him with great lines and great situations. Likewise, the rest of this large cast must be well-used in order to keep the interest of an audience.

 

By including characters that appeal to the fantasies of both men and women in this series, the writers have created a good platform for an interesting and fun series. The key to success will come down to the situations the writers create once they have exhausted the original material. I would like to see this effort succeed, but my instincts tell me that this one will need to catch on fast, or it will be on the chopping block after just a few episodes.

 

 

Editor

 

All Content Copyright © 2009 TVVIEW.TV - All Rights Reserved.