Valentine pilot review

Valentine


Greek Gods play matchmaker



Type of Pilot: Romantic Comedy/Drama


Similar Shows: Cupid (guy with god-like powers is a matchmaker),


The Inner Light: We've lost our way in this modern world of computer dating, but Fate still wants us to find true love...


Strengths: Superb casting, very funny, sweet.


Weaknesses: The story in the pilot is a bit corny: girl overlooks nice-guy best-friend in favour of the jackass Alpha Male. In the real world, of course, the Alpha Male jackass always wins, so on TV (and in the movies) the nice-guy best-friend wins instead and they live happily every after (eating ice cream in front of the tv, in this instance).


Impressive Characters: All of them! Grace is the leader of the pack. Danny is the over-eager sex-solves-everything kind-of-guy. Phoebe is over-eager and innocent. Kate (the mortal) is the 'love expert' who messed up her own life. And Leo is the amiable, strong one.


Impressive Actors: Jaime Murray is sexy and sultry and all-knowing and smug and... rather wonderful in the main role. Kristoffer Polaha is hilarious as the lusty Danny. He wants to shoot everyone (with his love gun. Not that is NOT an euphemism!) He plays it like a big kid in a candy store. Just as hilarious is Autumn Reeser who virtually jumps up and down with innocence & enthusiasm and gets some of the pilot's best lines. Christine Lakin arrives late in the pilot and makes her mark with a couple of great scenes: her orgasm scene and her backstory reveal (told while driving the case-of-the-week to meet her true love). Lakin manages to sell everything about the absurd concept (mortal hired by God to help matchmake). Finally, Robert Baker brings earnest goodness to the role of Hercules (Leo). The always great Patrick Fabian pops up in a supporting role.


Less-Than-Impressive Characters: I loved them all.


Less-Than-Impressive Actors: Strongest ensemble cast on any TV show this season.


Continuity: None. I imagine that this will be a case-of-the-week show, unless they try to pair Kate up with one of the guys.


Rewatchability: Some. It was very funny in places. Worth a re-watch.


Other Info: I was just thinking how compatible this would be with Reaper, then I read that creator/writer Kevin Murphy has worked on Reaper (as well as the wonderful Jack & Jill).

Three Things I Really Like About This Pilot:

Superb cast.

Very funny.

Sweet.

One Thing I Kinda Don't Like About This Pilot:

The case-of-the-week is corny.

Miscellaneous Comments:


Sure, it's nowhere as good as Cupid but it manages to bring something new to the table. Besides, I fell in love with this bunch of characters and I like the idea of watching a funny show about love/romance.

GRADE: A