'Geena' is an ill-conceived mismatch

MomSeattle · DadSeattle · SPI · MySeattlePix · My account

Local

US/World

Sports

Business

A&E

Life

Comics

Photos

Opinion

Blogs

Buy Ads

Jobs

Autos

Homes

Rentals

NWsource

TV & Radio

'Geena' is an ill-conceived mismatch

Tuesday, October 10, 2000

By JOHN LEVESQUE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER TELEVISION CRITIC

Networks usually send critics the pilot episodes of their new fall shows in June or July. Closer to the premiere date, they'll resend the pilot to incorporate cast changes and plot tweaks, and they might toss in an additional episode or two to give us an idea of the show's direction.

Sometimes this helps change a critic's mind. Not so with "The Geena Davis Show." In June, the pilot was dreadful. In October, after seeing the pilot and two more episodes, I'm inclined to go with dreadful plus heinous plus who decided to put this on the air?

REVIEW

THE GEENA DAVIS SHOW
WHAT: Half-hour sitcom about a single career woman who sheds her fast-paced life after falling for a widower with two children.
CAST: Geena Davis, Peter Horton, Mimi Rogers, Cindy Lu, Wendy Makkena, John Daley, Esther Scott and Katya Abelsky
WHEN / WHERE: 9:30 p.m., KOMO/4
GRADE: D+
If ever a series seemed like the wrong vehicle for a couple of stars, "The Geena Davis Show" is it. Davis and Peter Horton play a pair of lovers who seem about as compatible as Ford and Firestone. She is Teddie Cochran, a high-powered marketing executive. He is Max Ryan, a low-energy political writer.

Their being complete opposites is the whole point of this alleged romantic comedy, but the apparently unforeseen fact that Davis and Horton come across as two people meeting for the first time certainly wasn't part of the plan. I've had warmer relations with the aunt who boxed my ears after my brother-in-law hit her with a Frisbee. (My brother-in-law threw it, but I was the intended receiver and the one in closest proximity to the victim.)

When Teddie becomes engaged to the widower Max, she moves out of Manhattan and into his home in the suburbs, inheriting his two precocious kids -- ages 6 and 13 -- and their headstrong caregiver, Gladys (Esther Scott). This trio stands in counterpoint to Teddie's own posse of friends who sit in judgment of her new lifestyle. Mimi Rogers and Kim Coles are presumably intended to add zest in these roles, but in the hackneyed style of tired old comedies, their punch lines are as predictable as the local news.

John Levesque is the P-I's television critic. Call him at 206-448-8330 or send e-mail to tvguy@seattle-pi.com