Thursday, January 06, 2011

TV review – “Cupid” (1998) ** (first four episodes only)

I wanted to see this because it was an early TV work from Rob Thomas, who created the terrific Veronica Mars, and it had a reputation for being a great show that was unfairly cancelled. But while there were many good things about it, this wasn’t that sensational. It has lots of bright lines and an intriguing set up – a man is convinced he’s Cupid and has to united a hundred couples before he’s allowed home. But I think it was a mistake to have every episode focus on only one romance; there wasn’t enough story for an hour of drama.
Also the conflict between Cupid (Jeremy Piven) and the shrink he befriends who runs a singles group (Paula Marshall), based on their different approaches to romance – he being more passionate, she logical - got repetitive very quickly. Piven is very good (he’s one of the producers – I didn’t realise that Piven was that big in TV land in the late 90s) but Marshall, who I’ve liked ever since that lovely three-ep arc on Sports Night where she played a porn star, doesn’t quite pull of her role; she’s a character actor and it needed a star.

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