September 20, 2009

New TV Fall Lineup: Accidentally on Purpose

Summer’s over, the kids are back in school, the temperature is dropping and the leaves are changing (here in Pennsylvania anyway,) and like music to women’s ears everywhere, that means that there is some brand spankin’ new TV hitting the airwaves for the new fall lineup. One show hitting the scene tomorrow is the new CBS sitcom Accidentally on Purpose, a romantic comedy sitcom starring Golden Globe award winner Jenna Elfman.

Jenna Elfman plays a late-thirty-something newspaper film critic who is barely surviving a humiliating breakup with her boyfriend of three years who is also her boss, James (played by Grant Show) who couldn’t commit. While out one night with her “party girl” best friend Olivia (played by Ashley Jensen) and her conventional, younger and married sister Abby (played by Lennon Parham,) she meets a significantly younger man, Zack (played by Jon Foster.) After talking it over with Olivia, whether her going home with Zack is desperate or empowering as a late-thirty-something woman, Olivia assures her that it is empowering, since Zack is over 18 years old and all. After downing some mojitos, Billie finds herself in the middle of fratville, engaging in the cougar-eat-fratboy world that the media is so very fond of right now.

While she and Zack were supposed to be a little fling, something to take Billie’s mind off of her breakup, Billie finds out that she is expecting a child a few weeks into their little rendezvous and after speaking with Zack about it, he decides that he wants to have an active part in raising their child, so they make an arrangement to live together–platonically, of course. But when Zack and his freeloading friends start to turn her place into a frat house, Billie then must figure out what is to come of her life; is she living with a boyfriend, a roommate, or does she just have a second child to raise?

Check out a preview of the show, as well as behind the scenes footage and interviews with the actors:

I have never been one to particularly like romantic comedy sitcoms; sure, I’ll leave a syndicated episode of Friends on or leave an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond on if the television is on and I need something to play in the background while I’m working. However, Accidentally on Purpose is not a show that I would leave on even if I wasn’t particularly paying attention to it. The show is based on a real-life film critic, Mary Pols and her memoir, Accidentally on Purpose: The True Tale of a Happy Single Mother, but would make a much better movie rather than a television series; the only reason it hasn’t been made into a feature-length film, in my opinion, is because a movie very much like Mary Pols’ memoir already exists–it’s called Knocked Up.

A memoir is a great jumping off point for an entertainment medium, it just needs to be done right and while Accidentally on Purpose reaks of the Lincoln Logs needed to create a hit sitcom that could be very much loved by a wide audience, it falls short in it’s execution. Elfman is most known for her role in Dharma & Greg and while her role may have called for an over-the-top personality, she performs very much the same in Accidentally on Purpose. While she is an actress that you either love or hate, I am still very much apathetic towards her because I do not think that she is actively portraying roles she finds herself with, I think that she is rather playing herself in the roles she lands, which makes her the eccentric actress that she is.

I don’t have much hope for Accidentally on Purpose going on to live a long on-screen life, but there are a few shows that I have felt exactly the same way about that are well into their second and third seasons. I suppose only time will tell if Accidentally on Purpose will succeed in appealing to a wide audience of women.

Accidentally on Purpose premiers on CBS on Monday, September 21st at 8:30PM/7:30PM Central.

By Holly

1 Comment

Posted in Entertainment , Television

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About the Author: Holly Ord

In addition to being the Founder and Editor of Woman Tribune, Holly Ord is a freelance writer, web designer and developer, feminist activist and blogger, and hopeless video game addict. She lives in Northeastern Pennsylvania and has been blogging on liberal politics and gender equality on her personal website, Menstrual Poetry since 2007.

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One Comment on New TV Fall Lineup: Accidentally on Purpose / Add Your Comment

last longer in bed says:

September 21, 2009 at 7:19 pm

oh my god i love it but i can’t find it here in egypt which channel on the reciever is it on ???

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