'OCTOBER ROAD' A PATH BEST LEFT UNTRAVELED.Byline: David Kronke Television Critic Chockablock with cliches, sappy melodrama, paper-thin characterizations and affected dialogue, ABC's "October Road" plays like a bad parody of a CW or Fox prime-time soap. Entire dissertations could be written on how much this show gets wrong, and how badly. Tonight's premiere opens in 1997, with Nick (Bryan Greenberg) in bed with his high-school sweetheart Hannah (Laura Prepon), as he's preparing to leave his small New England hometown for Europe for six weeks. Which, given how much they emphasize that "six weeks" part, is clearly going to be much longer. In fact, he's gone a decade. In the meantime Adv. 1. in the meantime - during the intervening time; "meanwhile I will not think about the problem"; "meantime he was attentive to his other interests"; "in the meantime the police were notified" meantime, meanwhile , he's written a novel, unpromisingly titled "Turtle on a Snare Drum." (Worse: It ends at ground zero.) In Manhattan, a floozy floo·zy also floo·zie n. pl. floo·zies Slang A woman regarded as tawdry or sexually promiscuous. [Origin unknown. tells him the book changed her life; it's not certain if that's intended to be a compliment. Anyway, Nick's struggling with its follow-up, so he returns home, where everyone seems to take umbrage with how they were portrayed in his novel, and despite a ludicrously disastrous appearance at the local college, manages to land a job there. None of his friends seems to have matured a whit since he left; when he stumbles upon Hannah, he learns she has a 10-year-old son. Though she tells him, "Don't worry - he's not yours," the kid has the same apparently notorious peanut allergy peanut allergy Immunology A common cause of anaphylactic reactions which, unlike some allergies, is rarely outgrown; PA is the most common cause of food allergy in the US, and a leading cause of food-induced anaphylaxis and death after accidental exposure afflicting af·flict tr.v. af·flict·ed, af·flict·ing, af·flicts To inflict grievous physical or mental suffering on. [Middle English afflighten, from afflight, everyone in Nick's family (which gets blown into a major, and majorly ma·jor·ly adv. Slang To a great or an intense degree; extremely: got majorly depressed when she saw her test scores. silly, plot point), and she's soon knocking back vodka. From there, "October Road" degenerates into the usual sundry melodramatic story lines involving infidelities, romantic triangles, petty rivalries, etc., etc., etc. It doesn't help that Nick engages in a relationship with one of his students, Aubrey (Odette Yustman), and that even the school's dean (Penny Johnson Jerald) knows about it. It's hard to empathize em·pa·thize v. To feel empathy in relation to another person. with Nick, whom even Hannah dismisses as a "poor little super-successful writer boy" and who never bothered to contact any of his friends in the intervening decade. It's even harder to empathize when he simpers, "I've already missed out on 10 years -- I can't really afford to miss anymore." (Living in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of is "missing out?") And it's nearly impossible to sit through the montages playing out over mawkish mawk·ish adj. 1. Excessively and objectionably sentimental. See Synonyms at sentimental. 2. Sickening or insipid in taste. songs that end each episode. Though the first three episodes merely manage to truck in dull story lines before the fourth runs completely off the rails with ickily cute moments, implausible plot mechanics and manipulative tragedy, the show's overriding theme is delivered early on in tonight's episode. After his disastrous appearance at the local college, Nick confesses to Aubrey, "I can't impart wisdom; I can't inspire." She responds, "Then why are you here?" Good question. No reasonable answer will be forthcoming. David Kronke, (818) 713-3638 david.kronke@dailynews.com OCTOBER ROAD - One and one half stars What: A writer returns to his hometown; soap-opera antics abound. Where: ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. (Channel 7). When: 10 tonight. In a nutshell: Turgid turgid /tur·gid/ (ter´jid) swollen and congested. tur·gid adj. Swollen or distended, as from a fluid; bloated; tumid. turgid swollen and congested. melodrama. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Hannah (Laura Prepon) worries that her son may have been fathered by Nick (Bryan Greenberg) in ABC's "October Road." |
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