9/4/14

A to Z Arrives in October

I just watched the pilot of the new NBC romantic comedy A to Z and was surprised that it had some appeal even though it walks and talks like most of this genre.  The pilot is available to all at the NBC site (and you can go here as well for the trailer and more).  Here is the general set-up:

Andrew Lofland, while a guy's guy, has always been a secret romantic... not above crooning to Celine Dion while driving to work, with dreams of finding "the one." He imagines her to be just like that shimmering beauty he spotted that night in that silver dress at that concert two years ago. Zelda Vasco is a no-nonsense lawyer who has strong feelings about being her own person and prefers the control of online dating. However, when a computer glitch sends her a total mismatch, she's asked to come in for an interview at Wallflower Online Dating, the agency where Andrew works. 

Andrew and Zelda meet for the first time and despite their differences, sparks fly. She thinks it's chance. He thinks it's fate. After all, he's convinced she's the shimmering girl in the silver dress. Is it true love forever or just a detour in destiny?

The summary goes on (and on), but you get the point.  The pilot reminded me somewhat of the movie 500 Days of Summer.  However, maybe the key number here is 26.  The show likes to play with the alphabet, with A representing the first theme (I will let you be surprised).  The question is whether the cuteness of this couple will die long before we hit Z.  Such as L for "lame" and M for "melodramatic." 

The most interesting piece is probably using Ben Feldman as Andrew.  If you recall, he played Michael Ginsberg in Mad Men and had a little bit of trouble getting the attention of women until the bitter end.  And then the attention was all encompassing as he was led away to a padded cell.  Let's just hope he does not go the way of Van Gogh in this series. The new series officially starts on October 2.

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