JB Watched It For You - About a Boy (NBC Tuesdays at 9, sneak preview premiere Saturday at 11): lets get this out of the way right now - JB LOVES the original Hugh Grant film (and the book, or pretty much any Nick Hornby book). It was released just as I was doing semester abroad in the UK, at the very height of my lifelong Anglophilia. Its easily Hughs best performance, when he made the transition from affable chap to cad with a heart. The pilot (this is actually the second attempt, Patrick Dempsey filmed a pilot pre-Greys Anatomy) changes the locale from North London to San Francisco, and zips through the plot of the film/novel, compressing 2 hours into 22 minutes. Sacrifices were made for brevity, but even moreso in softening main character Will. Grant portrayed Will with a bit of darkness, an aging cad using disdain to mask a real fear that the world had fairly little to offer beyond the superficial. Here Will is played by the guy who was Jesss doctor boyfriend on New Girl, and the part is written more as a schlub who doesnt realize what he wants until its right in front of him - more Judd Apatow than Hornby. Its hard to pin down exactly what the show will be moving forward: Will practically welcomes his neighbor kid Marcus to be his pal, and by pilots end hes already dropped his single parent fake out and befriended Marcuss loony Mom (Minnie Driver, returning from her trip off the face of the planet to play the Toni Collette role, and the only thing British here). Are we going to get a buddy comedy filled with misunderstandings from which Will and Marcus must extricate themselves? It seems doubtful given the lack of laugh track, yet the show has so toned down everything edgy about the source material (including the immediate reactions that theres a creepiness in a man-child/actual child friendship) that this might very well be what were in for. Im willing to give it a shot if only because the pilot gives fairly little indication as to what the plot and rhythms might actually be. WATCH
Posted on: Fri, 21 Feb 2014 02:23:09 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015