Watching Ellie

I recorded the premiere of "Watching Ellie" last night to view after watching my other standard Tuesday night shows. I'm so glad I did, because this show is totally worth watching.

The show's use of real time action is not a not a new concept to television (as seen on HBO and Showtime), but it is rather new to advertiser supported networks like NBC. The concept of using real time action is a breath of fresh air in the land of the half hour sitcom, with their story lines frequently interupted by commercials. The actual length of a 'half-hour' sitcom is twenty-two minutes. "Watching Ellie" broke this into two halves, with only on stop for commercials in the middle. I noticed, thankfully, that there was no laugh track used (an overused concept).

The ability of the actors to accurately portray what is really going on in a twenty-two minute span obviously gives it a sense of real time passing, rather than a beginning-middle-end storyline where everything falls into place perfectly. Now, don't get me wrong, I love my sitcoms. I am frequently glued to my TV in the evenings. But it is nice to see something new every once in a while.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays Ellie, a single lounge singer who happens to be sleeping with the married guitarist of her backup band. So far, the show seem to be about watching her everyday life as a lounge singer.

Watching this show reminded me of an episode of "Mad About You" that broached this same concept. The story was about Jamie and Paul as they were trying to put their little Mabel to sleep with out hovering over her. The whole episode was shot in one take, with no commercial interuptions.

I really hope this show makes it. I am looking forward to future episodes.

Julia Louis-Dreyfuss pulls off the impossible. She stars in a sitcom where the character she portrays is about as far away as possible as she can get from the one she portrayed in "SEINFELD". The only similarities here is that surprisingly, she chose to name herself 'Ellie' in this sitcom where her name in Seinfeld was 'Elaine'. A coincidence perhaps?

Nonetheless, this sitcom had me thinking prior that I was only going to witness another poor offering starring a Seinfeld allum portraying the same character as before (ie. Kramer - "THE MICHAEL RICHARDS SHOW", George - "THE BOB PATTERSON SHOW"). I decided to give "WATCHING ELLIE" a shot and I was pleasantly surprised!

Julia Louis-Dreyfuss is Ellie. From what the pilot offered, Ellie is a jazz singer at a local club. Her life is full of comical mishaps and characters that she must interact with on a daily basis and she appears to have a sister of a somewhat flighty-nature. Ellie's lifestyle is amusing. She is sort of like 'Ally McBeal' without the dancing babies and dramatization of events that play out to the sound-track of Barry White.

"WATCHING ELLIE" supposedly plays out in real-time. There is a time counter in the corner of the television screen that counts down from '22:00' minutes. In the pilot, Ellie scrambles to ready herself for her jazz gig while the toilet in her bathroom is over-flowing, unbeknownst to her. Her sister has stolen her favorite dress that she wants to wear and now her apartment is becoming flooded with water! Enter surprise number two, Peter Stormare (ie. "FARGO", "O' BROTHER WHERE ART THOU", "DANCER IN THE DARK")!! An actor who I never thought I'd see starring in a generic sitcom, he portrays a pathetic handy-man with an un-placeable accent (Swedish perhaps?) who can't help but ogle over Ellie as she calls on him to try and fix her broken toilet. When he slips and knocks himself out, Ellie dashes a few floors down to seek advice from a Doctor who assists in the situation while completely nude.

Ellie herself has several character flaws. While not completely naive to the current events that shape her lifestyle, she has a male neighbor who has an issue with her by advising her constantly that the elevator is 'out of order' when it is in fact working (therefore forcing her to take the stairs every time) and she is also having an affair with a member of her jazz outfit who is (surprise, surprise) married!

Unlike the character of 'Elaine' that she portrayed on "SEINFELD", Ellie is a character that you can sympathize with. She does come off as a loser of sorts, but there is also a lot of 'human' in her character that some people will be able to identify with.

I really enjoyed the pilot, but will "WATCHING ELLIE" be able to keep its head above water with smart writing and not curse itself with repetitive jokes and turn into puerile trash (ie. "JUST SHOOT ME", "ALLY MCBEAL")? Only time will tell.

In the meantime - well done Julia Louis-Dreyfuss!

My Rating - 8 out of 10

Will there ever be a successful "Seinfeld" spin-off? Maybe. But I'm still waiting. Julia Lous-Dreyfuss has talent, which she wonderfully demonstrated on the hit sitcom. This show is just as lame as most sitcoms. But I guess the creators felt it had "hit" written all over it, because it's new and innovative: no laugh track and shot in real time. I gotta admit, that is original. But where's the laughs? Added to the cast are the talents of Don Lake and Peter Stormare, but they're also given thankless roles. The show is good-natured and never depends on cheap sex gags, but it's also incredibly dull. I'd rather watch paint try than watch Ellie.

My score: 3 (out of 10)

Really not a bad idea, but Julia Louis-Dreyfus is no Lucille Ball. I didn't buy it when she accidentally closed the grand piano. She's an okay singer, I guess, but I find it odd that they would name her charactar "Ellie". I know it's supposed to be "Eleanor" but it sounds too close to "Elaine". This show really wasn't that funny, but that's not to discredit Louis-Dreyfus as an actress. With the right script and a better time slot, she could make it work! I would also like to see her in movies again.

I was not expecting too much with this show - seeing the success of most spin-offs from Seinfeld failed, I was hoping Watching Ellie wouldn't suffer the same fate...but the show was just plain terrible. While the real-time format was somewhat original (sorry, "24" made it first), there was absolutely no structure whatsoever to the show. There were random events after random events, and the show literally became...well, a show about nothing - and not in the good way. The jokes failed regularly; while I applaud their decision to avoid a laugh track, there's something else they should have done away with: sitcom jokes. While the show is not all sitcom jokes, there were enough in there to realize just how bad such styled jokes are without a laugh track to encourage your humor. There was no Sex and the City humor in here, or even Malcolm in the Middle humor. Frankly, there was no humor. The little clock was no longer a means to orient yourself in Ellie's world - instead, it became more of a dragging clock. It is kind of like being in school, watching the clock and waiting for the 12:00 lunch bell...and the clock just drags sooooo slowly. Watching Ellie crashed and burned pretty damn badly.