(S01E01) I went into the series premiere of October Road with very low expectations. The reviews, by and large, ranged from "this show is so-so," to "this show blows."
But still, something made me want to watch. It was set in the greater Boston area. (I live in the Boston area.) A character wears a Boston Red Sox cap all the time. (There are many different kinds of Sox caps in my house.) The main character's a writer . . . you get the idea.
With the gift of the time slot after Grey's Anatomy -- but the curse of being up against the NCAA first round games -- October Road was given a golden opportunity that many new series aren't.
And it kind of faltered. But, if ABC gives it enough time (a precious, almost non-existent commodity in today's primetime environment), I think there's a chance that, like the freshman series Brothers & Sisters, it could, repeat, could right its ship. If it stops being so heavy-handed that is.
The premise of the show is that a twentysomething novelist, Nick Garrett (played by Bryan Greenberg) wrote one and only book that skewered his hometown buddies in the fictional Knights Ridge, Massachusetts. Originally planning to live in town and continue dating his college girlfriend Hannah, Nick was going to start a window company with his best buddy as soon as he got back from a six-week, post-college trip across Europe. But Nick never came back. Instead he traveled, went to New York City, wrote a bestseller that was turned into a movie and he became the toast of New York. But when writer's block hit, Nick's editor suggested that he go back to Knights Ridge for the first time in a decade to not only face the music with his friends who were upset at how they were portrayed in his book, but that Nick teach a one-day seminar at a local college about writing.
And then came the show's heavy-handedness to spoil all the fun. Think of a ridiculously over-sized Looney Tunes sledgehammer smashing you on the head. That's how subtle October Road was with some of its themes. For example: You can't go home again and you need to remember where you came from. Those two sayings were relentlessly repeated via some stilted, awkward dialog. To distance Nick from his working class hometown pals, the writers put into his mouth a series of bad lines that fell flat the moment they were uttered.
When Nick sees his old flame Hannah -- who he unceremoniously left 10 years ago and now has a nearly 10-year-old boy who Nick is certain is his -- kiss a guy who was a hometown creep, the creep asks Nick if he's surprised that he and Hannah are an item. "Shocked to a stupefying silence I may never recover from is probably a better way to describe it," Nick said.
After he fled the college auditorium because he was having a panic attack, a single college student stayed in the room, waiting to see if Nick would return. When he did, she asked him why he flipped out. Nick replied, "I'm not really sure why . . . I can't impart wisdom. I can't inspire."
At the end of the show, as Nick calls his editor to say that he thinks his writer's block can be solved by staying in Knights Ridge, Nick says, "I was wrong all along, 'cause there are a lot of unexpected adventures and I'm just not ready to walk away, not a second time. The way I see it, this thing's in diapers."
Ick.
And despite the fact that the show was bashed by many reviewers -- including by the two major Boston newspapers -- I think that if the writers loosen Nick up and stop making him sound like an over-earnest English lit grad student and stop forcing their after-school special messages down viewers throats, October Road could work. It's got a decent premise. Some of the characters seem intriguing, particularly Hannah and her son Sam, (though Sam's just a wee bit too cutely-mature for my taste). Loved the line from Sam's grade school-aged friend who told Nick, "My mom read your book. She said it was mostly crap."
I felt the same way about Brothers & Sisters when it first started. With a blockbuster cast, I anticipated some insightful drama. What it featured, at least at first, was unbelievable, soapy melodrama. More sledgehammers in the form of bad dialog trying to make darned sure that viewers understood the lesson of the week. I almost gave up on the show when the writers finally gave it some space and stopped forcing each character to be a cliched stereotype. And if October Road's writers don't give Nick some breathing room (there were some good Nick moments, like his panic attack), will ABC allow the show to continue on in a coveted primetime spot? Time will tell.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
3-16-2007 @ 9:51AM
Keith McDuffee said...
I'm also from the Boston area, and I think that's one thing this show has got against it -- Massachusetts is a tiny state, and we can't be fooled into thinking a place like this exists here, even if it's a fictional town. The 'Boston' tunes they throw at us don't fool us (are there really 20-somethings out there still digging 'Boston' and 'Thin Lizzy'?). Even the mean jock guy has a southern drawl.
Of course, the rest of America likely doesn't care that despite the pretty New England churches and fall leaves, this doesn't feel like Massachusetts.
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3-16-2007 @ 10:36AM
Russ said...
I have to agree with Keith. I'm also from the Boston area and kept trying to figure out what town or area this was supposed to be. None come to mind. It definately interferred with my enjoyment of the show. Why can't they get us right? Anyway, what happened to "Men In Trees"?
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3-16-2007 @ 11:01AM
Meredith O'Brien said...
Keith -- I agree with your sentiments that the Massachusetts portrayed in the show isn't the one I know either.
Just a couple little things that bugged me:
The Sox cap on Nick's friend was always crisp and new. In every scene. And this is a guy who wears his caps to construction sites. Most guys' Sox caps look worn, even when they're new.
And I haven't seen a kid delivering newspapers in decades. Adults deliver the newspapers these days.
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3-16-2007 @ 10:55AM
shanty said...
I got really excited about it when I heard it was from the writer of Beautiful Girls, but the pilot didn't have any of the humor or heart that Girls had, maybe it is because of the talent difference in casts.
I know Scott Rosenberg has written some clunkers, I’m looking at you Kangaroo Jack, but he seems capable of something a little better than what the pilot was.
I hope it gets its chance, mostly because as someone who moved from a small town to a large city I relate to the “can’t go home, but can’t it escape it” story line, but if it gets yanked, I won't lose sleep.
It’s good to see Bill Bellamy getting work again.
PS-When is Chad Michael Murray and his squint going to get cast?
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3-16-2007 @ 11:16AM
Pamela said...
Maybe I wasn't paying attention very well, but if Nick was post-COLLEGE, why was he sleeping with Hannah, who was just approaching her 17th birthday? Or was Nick post-HIGH SCHOOL when he left town for a six-week trip?
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3-16-2007 @ 11:28AM
Kristine said...
I thought this show was really terrible and so generic. It was also boring, badly written and a little confusing. What is October Road? And why did Nick forget which side he belonged on? It almost feels like the show must have started out as a great concept, and then probably got more and more watered down from fear of not getting the big ratings. Because how likely is it that a show starting in March will succeed?
I don't think that Hannah is Nick's college girlfriend. I think all these characters went to highschool together. She says she was about to turn 18 when he left town. I kinda get the feeling that none of the characters went to college. But the dialogue/situations were so non-specific that it was really tough to tell anything about them or about the town. Are there supposed to be class issues here too? In the scene at the bar, when Nick's ex-bestfriend starts to pick on that college kid (the guy from One Tree Hill) and Nick defends the guy, his friend says something like, "Is this what you've become? Someone who defends _____?" I didn't catch the word he used, but I assumed he was referring to kids who go to the college there. I don't know. I really don't get it and I really didn't like it.
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3-16-2007 @ 1:14PM
rtms said...
It was an ok ep, but yeah Nick needs to lay off the big words stuff. As the creep guy said, he just says these things to hear himself talk.
I would have liked more father/son bonding which I felt was left on the floor in exchange for seeing what his friends were up to.
As for the ending, he was talking to his agent not his book publisher. The agent was always saying "it's in the diper" thing which sounded so gross.
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3-16-2007 @ 11:50AM
Meredith O\\\'Brien said...
You're right Kristine! My bad. I just looked it up on the ABC web site to confirm . . . Nick and Hannah were high school sweeties and his Europe trip was post-high school, not college. I think I got confused by the fact that it looked like Nick and Hannah were in a dorm/apartment during their bedroom scene, plus one of their buddies who burst in on them remarked about seeing the college from the window. Good catch.
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3-16-2007 @ 12:08PM
Cammie said...
Now I'm confused... Didn't Nick go to his college alma mater for a one day guest speaking bit? I also thought that he went to Europe post-college. HMMM.
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3-16-2007 @ 12:25PM
BC said...
As I mentioned elsewhere, I think this premise worked better 5 years ago as "Glory Days", although that didn't last long either. Instead of just soap opera, excuse me, family drama, there was a potentially interesting mystery each week. Plus Poppy Montgomery, Frances Fisher and Theresa Russell. I like Bryan Greenberg, but I can't see where this show could go for even one season, without a body of the week.
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3-16-2007 @ 12:29PM
Karen said...
I was confused about the whole 9/11 thing. It the show started in 1977 and he was gone for ten years, that would put it at 1987. 9/11 didn't happen until 2001 so how could they keep referring to it? Also, when he left NYC they showed a scene where you could see the twin towers. Can someone enlighten me please?
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3-16-2007 @ 12:53PM
Laura said...
He left in 1997, not '77.... he has now returned in present time. I didn't notice the twin towers, but if they were in there, then they were using an outdated, incorrect backdrop, which would be a pretty bad miss!
I really thought it was lame that Nick's old "crew" still gets together "every Saturday at 3:00" to jam on fake instruments... that would never ever happen for 10 straight years.
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3-16-2007 @ 1:22PM
Julie Ing said...
I think Nick is a real kuunttt.I hope he gets over the writer's block and gets Writer's A.I.D.S. I'm from Mass. and i've never encountered these types of DILDOS before.
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3-16-2007 @ 1:31PM
Karen said...
If it was 1997 why were they using old Boston songs then? More Than a Feeling came out in 1976 so that would make more sense that that was playing when he left.
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3-16-2007 @ 2:13PM
Keith McDuffee said...
@Karen --
That was my point re: Boston. What 1997 high school grads still liked Boston and Thin Lizzy songs? I felt like a weird fool for listening to Thin Lizzy when *I* was in high school ... 20 years ago!
Oh and get this: the show's filmed in Georgia. Wha...?
Another silly notion is that Nick completely loses contact with his friends for 10 years, when 1997 was well within the days of the Internet, email, etc. He couldn't even use *that* to keep in touch?
I *think* I heard the guys call their "band" 'October Road' but I could be wrong. Is it supposed to be some weird homage to James Taylor?
I would put money on the fact that the creator of this show originally envisioned this show to take place between 1977-1987, but the big wigs poo-pooed that and told him to modernize it. But because of budgeting and all that, they barely messed with the scripts and kept things very unmodern-like, like the lack of keeping in touch in a very modern age, for example. And the fricken paperboy on a bike.
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3-16-2007 @ 2:28PM
Porchland said...
What an absolute mess. I'll never have that hour of my life back!!
1. I live in Georgia and had heard the show was made here, so the Boston stuff left me sort of whaaaa??
2. I couldn't tell if the show was period or not. The music at the beginning was 70s, which would have put the present-day scenes in the 80s, but the publisher/agent/whatever had a tiny mobile phone and there was a 9/11 reference, so it must be set in the present.
3. What there any effort ot explain what October Road is? That's not a generic enough title to work without some kind of explanation.
4. OMG, the most ham-fisted pilot I've ever seen. At the beginning, they kept hammering the be-back-in-six-weeks thing over and over and over and over. And the air guitar crap was almost painful to watch.
5. Laura Prepon is better than this. She should get a mulligan on IMDB if this show gets cancelled soon.
As for the review, I think you're wrong on "Brothers & Sisters." I think the show has been very solid the entire season and started on a much higher plane than "October Road."
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3-16-2007 @ 2:45PM
Anthony said...
I thought October Road was the name of the city?
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3-16-2007 @ 3:22PM
Keith McDuffee said...
@Anthony --
Read the above article: the town is called Knight's Ridge. I really thought I heard them say that sorry excuse of a band was named October Road.
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3-16-2007 @ 4:54PM
Walt said...
I'm sure "October Road" would be some dividing road in the town representing "The Tracks" as in "She's from the wrong side of the tracks", but quite frankly, the show is a mess.
I did enjoy that all the stops to sell the show were pulled, such as the music tracks. How many songs were featured in just this one hour? ten? Popular music is often a shortcut to pulling emotional strings, and all those songs... well, the show was pulling every string it could.
I noticed that next week, the kid on the bike gets mowed down by a car. Since this show isn't DEADWOOD, we can guess the kid lives. The show, however, may not be so lucky.
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3-16-2007 @ 7:48PM
tv junkie said...
how can anyone compare this show to "brothers & sisters"? it's clearly two different shows. although it may be true that both shows started weak, i much prefer brothers & sisters over "october road"....this show is really really generic and so-so.
I don't see the good friendship the show try to make us believe the characters had in 97. I don't know what about the book that make the entire town hate Nick. I don't know why all the "literate" characters, like the college girls and Nick, have to talk like they're reading someone's analysis on Shakespeare's works when they're talking about Nick's supposed best-seller.
I was losing interest minute by the minute watching the show, and the cliffhanger didnt catch me either...it was soo obvious that the kid was gonna pull out the sandwich and talk about his allergy to nuts.
on TV guide.com, Bryan Greenberg, who i don't think have what it takes to be a leading man, said in the interview that the show really pick up the steam from episode three (he said episode six is his favorite so far.) Well, i'm not sure I'm gonna stick with the show that far.
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