Reviews

First of all, it helps to like the lead actor (Jeffrey Donovan) who has an odd kind of blank faced charisma. Anyway, based on the pilot it's a stylishly put together show, with very dry humor, well done but restrained action scenes, and some nice dialog.

The pilot is something of an episode of "The Equalizer" -- except that instead of the hero being a retired spook the main character is in an imposed hiatus. This worked as a nice vehicle for introducing characters and situations and fleshing out the main character's positive qualities, but if this becomes a recurring formula, the show will probably not survive.

This is one of those shows I miss and could have watched forever. I'd also love to see the characters revisited in fortysomething or fiftysomething, but the creators are having considerable success making movies (most notably Glory) so I'm not holding my breath.

This show was ground-breaking in the depth and honesty of its portrayal of many aspects of modern life that had either never been dealt with on the big or small screen, or which had been treated superficially, including: * becoming a parent (e.g. there's an entire episode about the first time you leave your baby alone all night) * infidelity (one of the two central couples goes through a painful divorce, involving children, shared friends, etc.) * cancer (one of central characters has a long battle with cancer) * infertility * AIDS * unemployment * loneliness (at one point two of the characters get into a video-dating service together) * academic politics And probably a bunch of other things I haven't thought of.

Despite being about "ordinary lives" in a way that only sitcoms such as Seinfeld even approach, it managed to be compelling, funny, and memorable. I was actually hooked sometime in the second season when I was channel surfing and listened to a snippet of conversation where one character referred to someone's behavior as being controlled by their "reptile brain" and realizing it was actually a show pitched at an intelligent audience.

Almost uniquely among American television shows, there were no doctors, lawyers, or policemen. The two central characters (Michael and Elliot) run a small ad agency which goes under. The central idea of the show, according to the two creators in an interview with Playboy (1989, I think) was that it would be about two friends who go into business together and the business fails. This is, perhaps, one of the central experiences of middle class life in the United States, and I don't think it's ever been dealt with in a TV series before or since.

And finally, Miles Drentel (David Clennon) is plays one of the most magnetically evil (insofar as anyone in this show was evil) characters in TV history.

Correction to the data on display: Gary (played by Peter Horton) died towards the end of the final season. He may have appeared in some flashbacks but he was not in every episode. (For that matter, I think not every character appears in every episode... but this is a total quibble.)