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September 24, 2003
Seems David Kelley has lost touch
Different `West Wing' may not be better. And new `Poland' shows no good ideas from writer
By R.D. Heldenfels
Akron Beacon-Journal
A lot of us count ourselves lucky if we come up with one good idea in our lives. A successful television series needs 13 to 22 good ideas a year.
At least, it needs something to keep a show going for that many episodes, to keep audiences amused, script writers energized, actors on their toes.
It should be no surprise then that sometimes shows and producers go from seeming sure-handed to appearing to lose all their art. Not only do ideas wane, but casts change, viewer appetites shift, writers and producers move on.
And we're all left wondering if there's anything left to The West Wing's saga and David E. Kelley's art.
That's the nagging question in tonight's lineup of series premieres.
Tonight brings new seasons of 60 Minutes II (8 p.m., CBS), My Wife and Kids (a one-hour telecast at 8 p.m., ABC), Ed (8 p.m., NBC)and Law & Order (10 p.m., NBC).
Also on the docket is the latest round of The Bachelor (two-hour season premiere at 9 p.m., ABC), with former Bachelorette contender Bob Guiney dispensing the roses.
That lineup offers much to talk about, including my annual rant that Ed's Ed is with the wrong woman. But more interesting, and puzzling, are the two remaining premieres tonight, The West Wing (9 p.m., NBC) and Kelley's The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire (10 p.m., CBS).
On Sunday night, The West Wing picked up its fourth Emmy for best drama, a surprise given that it was coming off a turbulent year that ended with the departure of writer-creator Aaron Sorkin and director Thomas Schlamme.
It also ended with a huge cliffhanger -- the kidnapping of the president's daughter and the arrival of a new, interim president played by John Goodman -- to be resolved by the new creative team headed by writer-producer John Wells (ER, Third Watch).
I don't want to give away any major plot points, which pick up where the cliffhanger left off. But when watching the premiere, I kept thinking of how some things keep the same name while changing dramatically -- that the Temptations have only one original member, and M*A*S*H changed radically in style (and cast) over its first four seasons.
The new West Wing feels very different from the old one. That's not to say it's bad. Goodman is a strong addition to the cast. And some of Sorkin's more annoying mannerisms as a writer are gone.
But Sorkin's style also set the show apart, and his risk-taking writing meant the show could go from awful to brilliant and back again week to week. Wells' West Wing, in contrast, feels steadier, which means there are no dramatic lows in the premiere -- but neither are there any highs. Its sturdiness makes it feel unremarkable.
Then again, I would happily settle for unremarkable from Kelley at this point, since the alternative appears to be unrepentant awfulness.
Kelley not so long ago was a star producer and writer, someone who could win awards and draw sizable audiences to Ally McBeal and The Practice.
In recent seasons, though, he has struggled through the decline and demise of McBeal (which I never liked), a revamping of The Practice to save money and bring back alienated viewers, and the abrupt rejection by critics and audiences of Snoops and girls club.
But television programmers are unendingly optimistic, so the ones at CBS have placed a bet on Kelley's latest drama. Their optimism appears misplaced.
Brotherhood focuses on three brothers -- played by Randy Quaid, John Carroll Lynch and Chris Penn -- who have spent their lives in a small town and to a great extent run it. Lynch is the mayor, Quaid the top lawman.
But there are troubles below, in Penn's search for a job, in the brothers' homes and possibly on the public stage, where Lynch's old extramarital affair may be exposed.
The show recalls Peyton Place and Kelley's own Picket Fences, though he thinks Brotherhood is more realistic than his earlier drama. He wants viewers to look at Poland and say ``That's a town I've been in, or a town I've grown up in,'' he said. ``At least, they should be able to say, `I know someone from a town like that.' ''
Maybe you will. But even if the characters are recognizable in broad strokes, I doubt that you know many folks who speak in the stilted way Kelley writes dialogue.
If, that is, you want to waste your time listening. Even after some significant changes in the editing room, Brotherhood is a pile of recycled ideas and twists from other shows. Combined with the depressing hash that The Practice has become (including in its overhaul), the two shows suggest that Kelley really has lost touch with whatever it was that made him successful before.
He is just plain out of ideas.
Posted by Jo at September 24, 2003 08:58 AM