My Big Fat Greek Life started tonight (1 Viewer)

[Malcolm R]

Everybody tuned in expecting more of the same that they got from the movie. Instead, what they found was a far inferior version. Big drop in audience likely in future weeks.

 

[Lew Crippen]

My wife and I were two who tuned in and were two who were disappointed. I’ll give this another episode or so to work out the problems, but it is on my short list to drop.

 

[Paul_Medenwaldt]

I didn't get a chance to watch the 2nd show last nite.

Did anyone tune it in? How was it?

Paul

 

[MickeS]

It was more of the same things that were in the premiere. The parents wrote a will where they gave the restaurant to Nia, but she didn't want it.

I still enjoy it, but everyone else here seems to hate it.

 

[Lew Crippen]

I still enjoy it, but everyone else here seems to hate it.

Well, ‘hate’ probably does not describe my view, but ‘disappointment’ does.

For example, to me it was an indication that the writers were out of new ideas in the very first episode. It was, imo, a big mistake to recycle the ‘father buys the newlyweds a home’ in the very first episode. It may have had a different slant, but that does not mean that it was better.

I thought to myself that if that was the best they could do on the first episode, it was going to be an early curtain call.

 

[Lew Crippen]

And one more thing: a part of the charm of the movie was the boyfriend/husband’s acceptance of his new, extended family and their foibles.

This series appears to have thrown that aside in order to easily set up conflicts so the couple have things to play against (and against each other).

 

[Stephen Orr]

Er, was this on Sunday? I watched the Simpsons instead.

 

[MickeS]

Yeah, like I said in my first message in this thread: this show doesn't have much in common with the movie except for some character traits, and it's of much more "sitcommy".

I think that to enjoy it, you have to watch it on its own terms, not compare it to the movie (which inevitably and understandable many people will do).

/Mike

 

[Patrick Sun]

Its regular timeslot is on Sundays at 8 p.m. Has there been a reason why they went from Tula to Nia, name-wise?

 

[MickeS]

I think it's just sitcom convention these days to let the star of the show have his/her real first name.

 

[Mark Kalzer]

I watched a bit of the commentary on the DVD movie, and there she says that most of the jokes in the movie are based on real events in her Greek life. This TV sitcom is not...it's all just wisecrack and typical sitcom gags. Here is where I find the charm missing in the TV show. The characters no longer seem as real as they were in the movie, as Roger Ebert praised the film for.

 

[David Williams]

I must admit as much as I wanted to like this show, I won't be watching again. It's crap and not even particularly continuous crap. It's like they threw continuity out the window and created the parallel universe version of the movie.

For example:

1. In the movie, Cousin Nikki is married. In the tv show she dates.
2. In the movie, Aunt Voula and Uncle Taki own a dry cleaning shop and a travel agency. In the tv show, Aunt Voula designs and gives parties.
3. Toula goes back to working in the restaurant (not somewhere she really wanted to be in the movie).
4. Cousin Angelo works at the dry cleaners in the movie but sells fish (why?) in the tv show. (what is up with hair??)
5. Toula's sister, Athena, is missing with no explanation or even hint she exists (Ditto for Grandma Yiayia).
6. Gus and Maria's house is radically different in the tv show, remade in the basic sitcom style. Suddenly they live in some kind of brownstone.
7. This one has already been mentioned, but now Toula/Nia and Ian/Thomas' house is across the street from Dancing Zorba's.

Ugh, this show is a nightmare for the nitpicking continuity junkie!

 

[Malcolm R]

It just blows my mind that they took a wildly successful movie blueprint and botched it up so completely. What were they thinking?

All they had to do was continue the story from the movie with the same characters, same names, same personalities, same personal/career traits. Instead, we get all these pointless, inane changes that serve no purpose other than to alienate fans of the film.

Why f*** with a good thing?

 

[MickeS]

David and Malcolm, like I said, you have to watch the show on its own terms, not compare it to the movie.

I don't know why they made the changes, but does it really matter?

 

[Malcolm R]

I don't know why they made the changes, but does it really matter?

It does when it's based on a movie and the producers are expecting to attract the audience that liked that movie.

If they wanted to make something different, why not drop the movie angle and just call it "The Nia Vardalos Show"? Then it could stand on it's own terms.

 

[MickeS]

Malcolm, I agree. Basically they just did a bait-and-switch on us.

 

[Lew Crippen]

I don't know why they made the changes, but does it really matter?

It wouldn’t matter if they had given the audience something as refreshing as the movie. I am no big fan of the film, but it did have a certain charm. That charm, at least in my opinion, is missing from the series.

Of course the details don’t matter: things like what kind of house the newlyweds live in or whether or not they live across from the restaurant. Or even minor character changes such as married or single or a name change.

Where they erred (imo) is that in the film, the boyfriend/husband, while mildly put off by his future-in-laws, has really no trouble accepting them for who they are. Even his very Anglo parents loosen up by film’s end. But the series sets up a conflict (a battleground, if you will) between him and his in-laws—something that has been around in sitcoms for longer than TV has existed.

I decided this week that I would not wait for strike three.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I'm waiting for the "My Big Fat Greek Tragedy" headlines to hit when it gets canned.

 

[Malcolm R]

Well, we'll have to see if the ratings continue to sink, but it's not good a good sign that it lost over 1/4 of its audience from week to week:

Episode 1: 22.9 million viewers (Monday night)
Episode 2: 16.6 million viewers (Sunday night)

 

[Shaun]

Maybe they need to get Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson involved with the tv show as they were with the film.