Back To You, Notes From The Underbelly, Tell Me You Love Me, NCIS

Thursday, September 20th, 2007

05:00 Back To You
05:30 Notes From The Underbelly
06:00 Tell Me You Love Me
09:00 NCIS

Back To You. Episode 1. Kelsey Grammar is back on TV. His new sit-com is standard fare, and it's funny. Kelsey Grammer & Fred Willard are both especially good. The rest of the cast are okay, but it will take a few weeks for them to hit their stride. I hope FOX gives them the chance to do it. I loved Stacked (from the same producers), and I can't understand why it didn't last longer. Sigh.

Notes From The Underbelly. Episode 1. Who would have thought you could turn pregnancy into a sit-com? But you can. This show proves it. It began last Spring with 8 half-hour episodes, and it follows the lives of a young couple who are expecting their first baby. Jennifer Westfeldt (who was in the first season of Two Guys And A Girl) is really rather good as the mother-to-be. I never liked her in Two Guys, but I'm completely smitten here. Her partner (Peter Cambor) is funny and likable and the whole thing was much, much better than I expected it to be.

Tell Me You Love Me. Episode 2. This outing is possibly every sadder than the first one, plus it gives us a better insight into the regular lives of the characters. I loved it. There are several long scenes where next to nothing actually happens. It's just the characters sitting around and thinking. I can see how this will be a huge turn-off for many viewers, but it's right up my alley. This cast makes it work. Particularly Ally Walker, who is fantastic. She's broken my heart two weeks in a row. Roll on week three!!

NCIS. Season 4, Episode 1. One of my favourite things about NCIS is the way the central characters interact with each other. They come across as a bunch of close friends who will do anything for one another when the chips are down. This episode plays up that side of things, with one of the regulars framed - and on the run - for a crime she didn't commit. Consequently, the rest of the team must pull out all the stops to get her name cleared. It's action-by-numbers and it's really, really good.

Best Show of the night? Tell Me You Love Me.