'Gilmore' creator returns to sitcom roots with 'Jezebel James'
Oy with the sitcoms already.
Your Friendly Neighborhood TV Critic gets as irked as anyone over the prevalent sameness of television. That's why when a show that breaks the mold like, say, "Gilmore Girls" comes along, I can't get the word out fast enough.
Unfortunately, that's also why "The Return of Jezebel James" is so disappointing when it debuts at 7 p.m. Friday on Fox WFLD Channel 32, in that it finds "Gilmore Girls" creator Amy Sherman-Palladino returning to the sitcom genre from whence she came. Try as she might to struggle against the conventional constraints, the predictable format winds up winning the battle, at least at first.
There's a lot to like about "Jezebel James," but not enough to make it a fitting heir to "Gilmore Girls," and I have to add that the early signs are that it won't get much of an opportunity to prove otherwise to anyone.
Sherman-Palladino first made a name for herself in her mid-20s writing for "Roseanne." No one lasted very long on that writing staff, however, and afterward she went through a handful of lesser series, including "Veronica's Closet," picking up a husband, Daniel Palladino, along the way before the Warner Bros. network gave the green light to her quirky, hourlong dramedy, "Gilmore Girls," about a young mother and the teenage daughter she had raised on her own.
Starring Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel, "Gilmore Girls" had a breezy sophistication all its own, fueled by Sherman-Palladino's wordy and worldly wise scripts, which were many times longer than the average hourlong drama, requiring the actors to rip through them at the breakneck pace of a '30s screwball comedy.
Somehow, the Palladinos, who were writing-producing colleagues on the series and remain collaborators on "Jezebel James," managed to maintain that pace for six seasons, most of which found the show the best program on the major broadcast networks. But when they insisted on a two-year extension at that point, the network, merging into the CW, cut them loose and gave the show to a hack who proceeded to run it into the ground the following season.
At the same time, the Palladinos were being courted by Fox to do another series, but in the year-and-a-half it's taken to bring "The Return of Jezebel James" to the screen, whatever was distinctive about Sherman-Palladino's original concept has been ironed out, resulting in a flat but lumpy comedy that is interesting only in spots.
"Jezebel James" stars Parker Posey as Sarah Tompkins, a well-to-do Manhattan editor of children's books, and Lauren Ambrose as her slacker sister, Caroline, more or less affectionately known as Coco. Posey has been a key part of Christopher Guest's improv ensemble on movies like "Best in Show," and Ambrose was an indelibly dour presence on HBO's "Six Feet Under," but they seem to have an uncertain grasp of their characters, at least to start.
Sarah decides she wants to have a baby, but told by her doctor that she can't conceive she replies, "Conceive what?" Whether that's supposed to express a ditsy denial or a cheeky sang-froid, it doesn't play either way. And when she recruits Coco to be her surrogate, there's no real reason why the younger sister would accept that awkward personal invitation, although Sherman-Palladino almost pulls it off by having Coco charmed at how Sarah has adopted her imaginary childhood friend, Jezebel James, for a series of kids' books.
Still, the unlikely nature of their relationship is exactly what makes it promising material for Sherman-Palladino. She adds to it by giving Sarah a colleague and lover in the form of Scott Cohen, previously known as teacher Max Medina on "Gilmore Girls."
"This relationship is about nice dinners, fancy drinks and sex," Sarah says, going on to add, "We have an agreement -- no drama, no emotions, just sex." Of course, the "purity" of that can't last, and soon Cohen's Marcus is inserting himself into her life.
Yet the execution is just so stilted, with its easily amused studio audience, it doesn't get a chance to be at all daring.
Fox had big plans for "Jezebel James," including a launch originally set for Wednesday in the time slot immediately after "American Idol," but even prime time's brashest and currently most successful network seems to have scaled back its expectations. "Jezebel James" will now debut Friday in back-to-back episodes apparently intended to disguise how this is a half-hour sitcom and not the sort of "Gilmore Girls"-ish hourlong comedy drama that defies categorization.
It's not going to fool anyone, "Gilmore" loyalists least of all, and I think Fox knows that. "Jezebel James" has the look of something that could be unique if Sherman-Palladino were given the opportunity to give flight to her fancies, but as it is it's too phony to satisfy. Sherman-Palladino advanced far beyond the typical sitcom in "Gilmore Girls," and it's frustrating to see her go back. I can only hope that, after "Jezebel James" runs its brief course this spring, either HBO or Showtime scoops her up and urges her to do a show that leaves conventions behind. Only then might she build on the success of "Gilmore Girls" and do something even more rewarding.
In the air
Remotely interesting: Bravo's "Top Chef" comes to Chicago for its fourth season starting at 9 p.m. Wednesday.
"South Park" returns with new episodes at 9 p.m. Wednesday on Comedy Central.
End of the dial: Personality-talk WGN 720-AM remained atop the local monthly Arbitrends released last week, but only just barely over resurgent urban-contemporary WGCI 107.5-FM. All-news WBBM 780-AM, adult-contemporary WLIT 93.9-FM (still benefiting from its holiday music) and Spanish-language WOJO 105.1-FM filled out the top five.
WBEZ 91.5-FM's "Chicago Public Radio Presents" puts on a show with Ron Trent, DJ Madrid and the Real DJ Lady D at the AV-Aerie, 2000 W. Fulton, Chicago, at 7 p.m. today. Tickets are $10, $8 for CPR members.