Side Order Of Life

Side Order Of life


a photo-journalist (striving to get the most out of life) covers kooky human-interest stories



Type of Pilot: Comedy-Drama


Similar Shows: Ally McBeal (she sees kooky visions, she's looking for true love, and her cases tend to be wacky), Strange Luck (central character carries a camera and meets interesting people)


The Inner Light: It's Ally McBeal.


Strengths: Hmm...


Weaknesses: It's Ally McBeal


Impressive Characters: Vivy is the best friend of the central character. She's just announced to this group of friends that she is dying. This annoucement is what drives the central character to change her view of life. Now, I like Vivy and her couple of scenes have a tiny bit of kick to them. Which makes me wonder whether the show would be better if she was the central character. This show is a bit like Reaper and Chuck in that regard. In both of those shows the sidekick is much more interestng than the central character. Here's a show about a (super-cute) woman who changes her life becauser her best buddy is dying. Which is kinda self-centered, when you think about it. She's taken her best friend's impending death and... made it all about her. Hmm. A more interesting series might have been one where the central character had a year to live. But, maybe that's just too edgy. Back in 1985 we had There Comes a Time about a guy who had a year left to life. I remember it as being pretty good, if not exactly popular.


Impressive Actors: Jason Priestly can do no wrong, but he is totally wasted in the role of the boyfriend. Anyone who has seen him in Beverly Hills 90210 or Tru Calling (especially) will weep to see him wasting his talent on this part. And if you remember him from his guest-shot on Jeremiah, then it is even more galling.


Less-Than-Impressive Characters: The boyfriend is a blah character. The best-friend-at-work character is likewise bland as bland can be. Christopher Gartin does bring a tiny spark of life to the character of the editor, but it's not enough.


Continuity: None, I suppose.


Rewatchability: None, I guarantee.


Other Info: Airs Sundays at 8

Three Things I Kinda Like About This Pilot:

Vivy the dying best friend.

Jenny (the super-cute central character) accidentally dials a wrong number and starts a series of phone conversations with a very nice man. I quite like that idea, and would like to know where it is going.

The visions. I can handle them in State Of Mind (in fact I like them there) but this woman sees loads of very strange stuff. She's off her rocker!

Three Things I Really Don't Like About This Pilot:

It's Ally McBeal.

It's all bit super-cute for my personal tastes.

The visions. I can handle them in State Of Mind (in fact I like them there) but this woman sees loads of very strange stuff. She's off her rocker!

Miscellaneous Comments:


I honestly found this one a bit hard to watch. The story she covered in the pilot/opener was OTT. Woman with three husbands and a secret lover on the side! The secret love was her true love, but she could never commit to him because she loved him too much. Or some such nonsense. The whole storyline seemed to exist so that the woman in it could give our heroine a peptalk about finding a man who will love all of you. Whatever that means. Then, worst of all, the storyline ended without resolving anything. It just ended when her true love overheard her talking about him. He walked in, they hugged, and it was over. Nonsense.

GRADE: C