What's new

life as we know it (1 Viewer)

Chris Lockwood

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 21, 1999
Messages
3,215
This ABC high school drama starts tonight, in the killer 9 ET time slot against CSI and The Apprentice.

Sounds good on paper, coming from people who were involved with Freaks & Geeks, and the title makes it sound like it's meant to be confused with My So Called Life. Plus it's all lowercase, so it must be cool.

http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,274|90773|1|,00.html

How long until this show is told "You're cancelled"?
 

Jason Adams

Supporting Actor
Joined
Aug 30, 2002
Messages
635
Real Name
Roger Jason Adams


Usually, I'm not swayed by the people playing characters on the show...but I'm going to have to cosign on that one.
 

Jeremy_Watson

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jul 30, 2002
Messages
249
I watched this tonight and was very pleasantly surprised. The music was great (some of my favorite bands of the moment) and I really like how they worked the guys talking to the camera. It seems like they may have gone overboard with so much happening in the first episode, but I guess that is how they hook you.
 

WadeB

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
May 6, 2003
Messages
231
Jeremy, you're right about the music. Some great stuff (All American Rejects, Franz Ferdinand, etc.) I really enjoyed this, but it wasn't a surprise. I figured if it had F&G creators behind it, it ought to be good. The MSCL parallels are intentionally there. One of the creators did say he wanted this to be MSCL for guys. Too early to tell if it will be that good, but it has tons of potential. These are not typical teen soap 2D characters. The buddy relationship bewteen the 3 guys works very well. They naturally seem like life long friends.

How did the direct to camera dialogue work for y'all. If you missed it, occasionally the action would stop, and one of the characters would speak directly to the camera, letting us know what he is thinking at a particular moment. This was the one part, going in, I wasn't sure about, but I think it worked great and at times added a lot of humor. "Just get in the car!"

Jackie is smokin! So is that English teacher. I had a student English teacher like that in 11th grade. Needless to say, the guys in the class had a hard time concentrating. And I hate to say this, but Kelly Osborne's character was somehow . . . ummm . . . kinda adorable. :b Her darkroom speech was something Angela should have early on told Jordan in MSCL. Of course Kelly isn’t as adorable as Angela, but Jonathan is a lot more likable than Jordan. The dynamics J&K’s relationship are very similar to Angela and Jordan’s. Don’t let Kelly scare you away from this show. She is blended in nicely with the other characters rather than a celeb. focus.

There was a lot going on, and I am, unfortunately hooked, because as Chris said, this is a really tough slot. Also, while MSCL might be a good creative model, it certainly isn’t a good ratings model, and since this is so quirky, and since I like it, it’ll be lucky to last MSCL’s 19 episodes. If you missed it, give it a chance. The pilot repeats on ABC Family on Saturday and Sunday at 11pm.
 

todd stone

Screenwriter
Joined
Dec 1, 2000
Messages
1,760
I watched this and came out happy. I think this show has life to it. Kelly Osbourne was not annoying like I thought she would be.
 

StephenT

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Sep 5, 2000
Messages
218
If you like it so far Read the book, "Doing It", that this show is based on, especially if the show dies an early death. I just finished reading it, and it's very funny. The Freaks & Geeks guys (love that short lived show by the way) didn't change much yet. All the character names and personas are exactly from the book. The only real change so far was the move from England to America and makeing Dino play hockey. Pretty much everything else was the same minus the English slang.

If it actually doesn't get cancelled I just wonder where they will take the story. They could finish out the book plotlines in 1/2 to 3/4 of a season.
 

SarahG

Second Unit
Joined
Jun 6, 2003
Messages
494
I was pleased with this. It's tough to take a worn-out theme -- such as teen angst -- and turn it into something really fresh, unique, and original. I particularly liked the camera format -- with the boys stopping to talk to the camera.
 

WadeB

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
May 6, 2003
Messages
231
I had heard about the "Doing it" connection. Haven’t read the book, but from some reviews, it sounds as if the creators worked hard to make the tv versions much more likable than they are in the book. Despite some of their crudeness, I think the tv guys are quite likeable. If the intention is to make this another MSCL, the writers will certainly need to make sure Jonathan, Dino and Ben stay likable.

Speaking of F&G, Samm Levine, aka Neal Schweiber, is supposed to appear on an upcoming story arc. Should be fun to see.

I think the camera trick works to do what MSCL did well, put us inside Angela's (and sometimes Brian's) head. MSCL just used voice overs. The straight-into-the-camera is a fun twist on this. IT could have been horrible, but it does work. In addition to my quote above, Dino's reaction to Jackie's invitation was hilarious, and Jonathan's "confession" was one of the best scenes of the episode.

TUNE IN! or this WILL be like F&G and MSCL and not last the season. Maybe if ABC just trashed the bachelor and put lawki up after LOST, it'd be a hit!
 

SarahG

Second Unit
Joined
Jun 6, 2003
Messages
494
Bwaaahahaha. You just made me laugh out loud thinking about Sean's confessional.

Yeah I hope it doesn't get cancelled. It's in a tough time slot but I think once people watch it, they'll enjoy it. I even got my older sister and her husband to watch it with me and they loved it. So who knows!
 

todd stone

Screenwriter
Joined
Dec 1, 2000
Messages
1,760
I assume when you TIVO or DVR something and have the TV off, it still count's torwards a "viewer watching the show"

correct?
 

Malcolm R

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2002
Messages
25,141
Real Name
Malcolm

The only way you get counted is if you're a "Nielsen" household.

Unless you're sharing your data with Nielsen at their request, what you watch/TIVO is irrelevant.

It's not like there's some miraculous detection signal flowing through the wires of your TV/cable/satellite that can tell someone, somewhere, what you're watching.
 

Jasmine Meathe

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Nov 20, 2003
Messages
89
I was pretty impressed with this show--the chemistry was def there with these boys..and I really liked the music they included. Does anyone have a list of what they played??
 

SarahG

Second Unit
Joined
Jun 6, 2003
Messages
494
as for the ratings, not great but...I read that it almost tied with The Apprentice for that time slot ...with the teen audience at least, so that's promising.

i've always wondered how Nielson ratings work and always felt too dumb to ask.....thanks for explaining :D
 

WadeB

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
May 6, 2003
Messages
231
Todd, you have to be asked to be one. Actually though, a few weeks ago, a message popped up on my Tivo that said they would be teaming up with the Neilson folks and asked for voluteers. I volunteered, but havent heard back yet.

When I was in grad school someone came to my door and asked if I wanted to be a Neilson viewer. The guy took some info ans said they be delivering a box that would track my viewing (which was zero b/c I was too poor to have cable), but again, I never heard back form them. I've always wondered about this b/c I don't know anyone who is on with Neilson. Someone else probably knows a lot more about this.
 

StephenT

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Sep 5, 2000
Messages
218
I never thought the boys were unlikeable in the book. They were just typical teenage boys who always thought about and wanted sex. Sure this leads to sometimes treating the girls in the book poorly, but it was realistic.

It is true with a TV show that you have to have likeable characters though. I think there's a fine line they can walk.
 

WadeB

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
May 6, 2003
Messages
231
There's no reason I wouldn't want to be, some people may have privacy issues, but I'm pretty sure you have to be randomly selected. The Tivo deal I mentioned will be different from the Neilson ratings we all are familiar with.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,815
Messages
5,123,815
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top