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let's not, again
On tonight, a grating, migraine-inducing half-hour
By Dan Jewel
When “Watching Ellie” debuted in February 2002, critics tore it apart and audiences tuned it out. Within weeks, NBC yanked the Julia Louis-Dreyfus sitcom off the air — not, to the network’s credit, to hurl it on the ashes of “The Michael Richards Show” and Jason Alexander’s “Bob Patterson,” but to rejigger it and try again.
This week, “Ellie” returns, with its second-season premiere airing tonight at 9:30 p.m. Its much-maligned gimmick — each episode took place in real time, with a ticking clock in the lower left corner of the screen, a sitcom version of “24” — has been jettisoned.
I missed the show the first time around, so I can’t judge how version 2.0 compares to the first season. But on its own terms, the new, improved “Watching Ellie” is a grating, migraine-inducing half-hour. The losing streak for “Seinfeld” stars continues.
Tonight’s season premiere sets up the premise — which, devoid of its gimmick, is now as conventional as they come. Ellie, a jazz singer, copes with the stress of working with her dashing on-again, off-again bandmate boyfriend, Ben (British actor Darren Boyd, an excellent straight man amidst the strained chaos of the show), while living in the same building as her obnoxious ex (“The Daily Show’s” increasingly irritating Steve Carell).
The writing reaches lazily for the obvious at all times. In the premiere, Ellie is attempting to convince Ben to move into an apartment in her building when she finds out his neighbor would be an impossibly tall, buxom Icelandic teen named Klinka. Suddenly, she tells Ben, she’s decided the apartment isn’t quite right for him.
Why? “I’m concerned there’s not enough closet space”—here there’s a pause to set up the punch line—“for you and Klinka to have sex in.”
Rarely has a laugh track seemed quite so phony.
The plots are as painfully predictable as the one-liners. When Ellie sees “dinner with Carol” written in Ben’s date book, she makes plans to show up at the same restaurant with her sleazeball ex in tow, to make Ben jealous.
“This is just like an ‘I Love Lucy’ episode,” remarks Ellie’s sister. In the sense that it’s a tired rehash of old sitcoms, yes. In the sense that it’s funny, no.
Sadly, “Watching Ellie’s” greatest liability seems to be its star. As Elaine on “Seinfeld,” Louis-Dreyfus was a constant delight, and her occasional appearances on HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” prove that she hasn’t lost her comic abilities in some freakish post-“Seinfeld” slump.
But on “Watching Ellie,” a show created by her husband, Brad Hall, she’s an abrasive, shrill, hyperactive presence, overacting wildly at all times. Every moment of her performance screams of effort. Every motion is exaggerated, every gesture grand, every facial expression a broad mugging. Expressing surprise, her mouth hangs open and her eyes bug out. She shrieks more often than she speaks.
She comes off like a stage actor playing to the rear mezzanine or an amateur mime. Someone needs to seriously cut down on her caffeine intake.
NBC’s shoving “Watching Ellie” into one of TV’s most competitive timeslots, opposite two surging shows, Fox’s “24” and the WB’s “Smallville,” and UPN’s strong new drama, “Platinum.” But even if it only faced “I Love Lucy” reruns, “Watching Ellie” would still be unwatchable.
April 15, 2003© 2003 Media Life
-Dan Jewel is a senior editor at Biography Magazine in New York and a frequent contributor to Media Life.
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