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2011-01-05 Entry: "Accidentally On Purpose - "Pilot""

A rapidly cancelled comedy from 2009 is next up on my list... not sure why it got cancelled at present...

Aspect Ratio: Some sort of 16:9.
Audio: 5.1 Dobly Digital.

Cast:
Billie - Jenna Elfman
Zack - Jon Foster
James - Grant Show
Olivia - Ashley Jensen
Abby - Lennon Parham
Davis - Nicolas Wright

Billie, 37, and a film critic for a newspaper, broke up with her boyfriend (and her boss) James on the Eiffel Tower in Paris when he fails to propose to her. One month later at the office party, she's hoping to get back together with him, but he's managed to move on (with Kate Moss no less).

Billie's sister, Abby is in a stable marriage, while her best friend Olivia is the man-hungry friend. Billie meets Zack, a much younger chef (he's 22), in a bar with his two slacker friends, and goes home with him. A one-night-stand later... or rather a one night stand and then a second encounter 2 hours later, and then we skip to 5 weeks later, where the pregnancy test comes up positive.

She decides its her last chance to keep the child, and although she expects Zack to break up with her, he decides he wants to stand by her and the baby. Unfortunately, as Zack's now living out of the back of a rental van, she invites him to move in with her. Oh, and now James wants to get back together with her... and her apartment's being taken over by Zack's slacker friends.

And there's a reason why this show was cancelled - it isn't actually funny. As far as I'm aware (not having seen it), this is pretty much a copy of "Knocked Up", the Seth Rogen "comedy" film from a couple of years earlier (which I suspect is no more funny than this show, but hey, what do I know?), but unless the TV show gets much better in later episodes, it's going to be a struggle to get through. Normally with a cancelled show I'd be raving about how much better the show gets as it goes on, and don't judge it by its pilot, but I haven't watched it yet...

I mean, Jenna Elfman's not terrible in this, but the rest of the cast haven't had a lot to do so far. Jon Foster's Zack is so bland it's scary, so they desperately need to flesh out his character better; the best friend Davis is just "stereotypical slacker friend" but again, we need a bit more meat. Billie's friend and sister aren't really any better - they're just there to show her competing desires (go out and party / settle down and raise a family) like the angel and devil on her shoulder.