While the script is less about love and more about sex, it isn’t necessarily a poor man’s Sex and the City. Love Bites hits the button that NBC wanted with Coupling way back in the ’90s, without dumbing down the sexual honesty or the cleverness. The pilot premise surrounds a trio of vignettes including two single girls, one engaged couple, and two guys traveling together.
The first visual vignette featured a strongly written script surrounding the plot of stolen virginity. Although I find it hard to believe any male/female would contemplate building or rejecting a relationship based on the partner’s sexual status, I enjoyed the textual back and forths between the two lead female friends as well as the script’s covert labial references.
The second vignette, arguably the weaker of the three stories, surrounds a male who is less concerned about losing his job, and more about serving as a human vibrator for his soon-to-be bride. All three characters, the male lead, his fiancée, and his best friend, received short shrift within a plot that seemingly recycled and condensed several Sex and the City episodes surrounding vibrators (from Carrie’s first rabbit to Samantha’s “second” boyfriend).
Luckily, the final story, which incorporated a “list” of celebrity partners providing marital moral exemption (similar to Ross’s list on Friends), returned to a tightly woven and believably humorous storyline.
Overall, I look forward to the actual show, written by Cindy Chupack and produced by the company that generated Love Actually and Four Weddings and a Funeral. The pilot cast features established romantic comedy and sitcom players including the hilarious Jordana Spiro (My Boys) and the ravishing Becky Newton (Ugly Betty) in the first vignette; the cute boyfriend prototype Kyle Howard, playing what he portrays in My Boys in the second plot; and the always affable Greg Grunberg (Felicity, Alias, Heroes) alongside the ceaselessly funny Craig Robinson (The Office, Zack and Miri Make a Porno) in the final story.
Based on the trailer (embedded at the bottom of this post), I guesstimate the pilot and first three episodes will appear slightly off-kilter and will require time to grab footing. Although the second story still appeared the weakest, the only differences I could discern between the pilot snapshots and the script are that the script used Alyssa Milano as the celebrity exemption while the pilot uses Jennifer Love-Hewitt.
I liked the script’s geographical variety, as contemporary TV tends to forget that locations other than metropolitan Manhattan, LA and DC exist, but I am more interested in how the multi-character, short-story formula will progress. On the one hand, it could offer multiple possibilities for freshness by following the lead characters until their lives inextricably intertwine and then start with new characters for the next season. It could also vary between a triple-couple storyline for one week or a focus on one of the couples/characters the next. My main concern is if they actually use three brand new couples every single week.
My second concern is early cancellation. Vignette-like comedy tend to not fare well in American TV. I think if this were on Cinemax/HBO, it might have a better chance of surviving. Then, they could actually call what I feel is a more accurate title, “Sex Sucks,” and include a few appropriately applicable scenes which, I’m typically against, but I feel, considering the subject matter, would definitely apply. I also feel this show would do well with a 12-episode per year count as opposed to the typical 16+.
Although I am happy at the presence of Love Bites and NBC’s renewal of Chuck, the frequency of trigger pulling on NBC and American TV in general concerns me. Considering Miss Match, Samantha Who?, and Miss Guided met early ends, I possibly envision a similar ending for this show. However, although, I am a girlie-girl and love girlie-shows , I would not place this in the same vein as Lipstick Jungle or similar shows, as I feel it appeals to all. All in all, I enjoyed the three-act script organization, the detail in the opening sequence (if maintained), and the covert intertwining of the characters through magazines/TV/art. I look forward to its eventual premiere and to reading people’s comments/responses to it.
What do you think? Is this a go for Fall? Would you watch it?
Clacked by An Nicholson 
on May 20, 2010 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
i like it a lot, and i’m very curious to know how they will tell these diffrent stories at the same time. Sounds like fun, hope it gets a chance.
By the way… what will happen with my boys??? two of the central characters are in these new series, and i thought that my boys would have another season… did they cancelled it??? :(
Is Craig Robinson leaving The Office?
*POST AUTHOR*
According to TBS’ site, the awesomely funny My Boys will return for July 2010. I do think it’s ironic that both play characters slightly similar to their My Boys versions (even if Spiro’s Bite character is more boy crazy while Howard’s is slightly needier).
I hope CR won’t leave ‘The Office.’ Both HitFix and the Live Feed reference the pilot cast as a ‘guest cast.’ That either means the show could use a different set of characters each week or that there is enough flexibility in the show’s structure that these actors can continue to guest/appear on other shows.