I may have watched an episode or two back in 1999 and not since, and then this popped up on my free antenna tv channel, to be shown in continuous rotation until (I guess) viewers get sick of this dated, 24 year old show. I only remember it vaguely, because of the lead actress, Melina Kanakaredes.
Yeah, yeah, I know 24 years is a long time and it is very dated. But holy cow, this was terrible -- just saw the pilot -- yet it ran for five seasons! And this before streaming and on demand. It is painfully unrealistic, and though I am no expert on Providence RI...it is pretty obviously not filmed there (except for a few establishment shots at the beginning) and nobody has a distinctive RI accent.
The main premise is rubbish, first off. Providence is a fairly good sized city of 200K with more in the 'burbs, yet there is not one single hospital or cosmetic surgery clinic that would employ one of the nation's TOP plastic surgeons? She'd take a 50% pay cut? Why? Because her boyfriend cheated on her, and turns out he was gay? (this scene is stupid and embarrassing). So she returns to her childhood home with live with her family?
Her mother, seemingly healthy (but a smoker) drops dead at her sister's wedding? So they cancel the wedding entirely? And she never marries her baby's dad? WHY? They could have been married quietly and privately the next day, at a JP's office or something.
Also: though Kanakaredes is lovely... given her name and classic Greek looks and the high Greek population in this region... why didn't they make the family Greek-American? Vs. Generic white bread? This seems like a no-brainer and might have added a touch of authenticity to an other lame "warm-edy" (a family-type situation comedy but with lots of emotional teary stuff).
Just absolutely artificial, like biting into a promising pastry and instead of good flavor, you get harsh fake taste -- overly sugary and cloying. Corny, trite, inauthentic, a missed opportunity to show an interesting region of the US.
Also badly dated, without the intrinsic quality that lets people enjoy some series for decades. Just don't bother.
Yeah, yeah, I know 24 years is a long time and it is very dated. But holy cow, this was terrible -- just saw the pilot -- yet it ran for five seasons! And this before streaming and on demand. It is painfully unrealistic, and though I am no expert on Providence RI...it is pretty obviously not filmed there (except for a few establishment shots at the beginning) and nobody has a distinctive RI accent.
The main premise is rubbish, first off. Providence is a fairly good sized city of 200K with more in the 'burbs, yet there is not one single hospital or cosmetic surgery clinic that would employ one of the nation's TOP plastic surgeons? She'd take a 50% pay cut? Why? Because her boyfriend cheated on her, and turns out he was gay? (this scene is stupid and embarrassing). So she returns to her childhood home with live with her family?
Her mother, seemingly healthy (but a smoker) drops dead at her sister's wedding? So they cancel the wedding entirely? And she never marries her baby's dad? WHY? They could have been married quietly and privately the next day, at a JP's office or something.
Also: though Kanakaredes is lovely... given her name and classic Greek looks and the high Greek population in this region... why didn't they make the family Greek-American? Vs. Generic white bread? This seems like a no-brainer and might have added a touch of authenticity to an other lame "warm-edy" (a family-type situation comedy but with lots of emotional teary stuff).
Just absolutely artificial, like biting into a promising pastry and instead of good flavor, you get harsh fake taste -- overly sugary and cloying. Corny, trite, inauthentic, a missed opportunity to show an interesting region of the US.
Also badly dated, without the intrinsic quality that lets people enjoy some series for decades. Just don't bother.