Premiere Week #5

The end is very near to my premiere week blog posts.  This may or may not be my last one.  This week, some shows such as The Walking Dead, Man Up!, Boss, and Once Upon a Time are beginning their seasons.  Because Once Upon a Time was premiering tonight, I might blog about it next week, but it's definetly one I would like to discuss at some point.

Going back a month or so, a show called Whitney aired it's pilot.  I was just recently talking with a friend who is just as addicted to TV as I am.  He was telling me how awful Whitney was.  So I decided that before I judge it myself I should watch the show and see if he was right.

Whitney is a fictionalized version of the real stand-up comedian Whitney Cummings.  In the show she lives with her boyfriend she has been seeing for three years and the show is based around their relationship and the friend group they associate with.

Whitney in real life is actually pretty funny. I've seen some of her stand-up routines on late night shows. But her show just isn't as good. There are many instances where I can definetly see her comedy routines, almost too much. It's as if she's trying to insert her stand-up into real life scenarios. It's pretty clear that when she is rambling it actually doesn't make sense, and it becomes fairly obvious that she is just trying to insert more and more jokes into her show.

Also, the vibe I got from the "taped in front of a live audience" thing is awkward.  Yes, the traditional sitcom has an audience, live or not.  But this is not traditional! Why does there have to be an audience?  I feel like there is a lot of potential but it's almost being wasted, as if Whitney is trying to play safe.  I honestly think her show could do well if she took a route more like Tina Fey in 30 Rock. With multiple camera shots it enables you way more flexibility and from my perspective makes it feel less awkward and forced.

So is Whitney awful? Maybe. Is the writing terrible? Probably not, I did laugh a few times and I'm not one to laugh at much.  Will it fail? Not if it doesn't change! As I said earlier it definetly has potential.  Right now the characters are not really in their groove yet, the plot is a little shaky and the writing is not at it's best, but that can change.  Like I've said multiple times on this blog, first impressions in television are not set in stone.