WHY METHADONE: As a fan of Gilmore Girls, I often find myself on the defensive, but just as the Velvet Underground were a band that had a small fanbase, but that fanbase was all inspired to start their own bands, Gilmore Girls was a show that had a large hate-base, but most were never inspired to actually watch the show they were so convinced was sappy and stupid. It's a shame, because Gilmore Girls mixed comedy (good comedy!) and drama with Apatow-ian flare, had a great soundtrack, and knew Melissa McCarthy was brilliant years before anyone else (including Judd Apatow). It went off the air in 2007 (but really ended in 2006, when creator Amy Sherman-Palladino was fired from her own show in one of the stupidest TV decisions next to Landry's psycho killer turn on Friday Night Lights), and while Ms. Sherman-Palladino had a brief sitcom on Fox, Bunheads is her true return, not just to television, but to the same sort of storytelling and quick dialogue that made Gilmore Girls did so well.
You're neither seeing doubles nor equals-- Kelly Bishop and Lauren Graham and Kelly Bishop and almost-Lauren Graham/Sutton Foster. (CW, ABCFamily)
WORTHY TREATMENT?: While Bunheads shares much in common with Gilmore Girls—it's set in the same sort of quirky small town (just on a different coast), with many of the same actors (Paris!) and a look-alike protagonist who can't only talk fast but also do a double-time step—it's struggled a bit to find its footing since the show's premise was a lot more complicated. Instead of being a show about a former teen-mom and her best friend/teen daughter and their wacky friends and jobs and extended family, this is a show about a showgirl (Sutton Foster) who gets married on impulse, moves to new husband's small town, loses him after 24 hours of marriage when he dies in a car accident (not so much a spoiler, it's in the pilot, you'll recover), and then…it takes a while to figure out where to go next. But, unlike a lot of people, I enjoyed the process of getting there, if only because it provided enough Gilmore goodness to take me back to the show I loved so well.
APPROVED AS METHADONE (although it looks like it won't get renewed, so the dose, one season, may be too low).
A Black Balloon Publication ©