Over/Under

Over/Under would be the kind of TV series you'd buy at Target and watch all weekend, one episode after another until sadly there aren't any left and you start waiting for rumors of Season 2. It's a casual cuisine thriller, best served with a bottle of fine wine. Steven Pasquale and Caroline Dhavernas make a likable couple because they are good-looking, they look good together, and they've got a hell of a lot of problems. You'll be nervous about their fatal flaws, but there is something about their loyalty that perhaps could save them, and you skip along from one character-revealing moment to another with a blend of shock, fascination, suspense, disapproval, and ultimately straight-up compassion. You hope you're rooting for them for all the right reasons, although you might be secretly wishing you had their skeletons in your own closet. You could give this show an 8 or a 9, but it hits that mark so effortlessly with its always-interesting dialog, assured directing, and its feel for the Manhattan-Brooklyn axis, you'll be looking for a reason to give it more. They didn't green light the series, but, fortunately, this 2-hour treat has a prolonged ending sequence with the camera taking us on floating walking tours right up to a surprise parting shot -- making this a complete story unto itself. Even without the subsequent episodes, the ending here comes across as highly original and satisfying. Look for Over/Under on USA.

Sorry, but no. We have no reason to care about two very spoiled main characters and their "troubled" life. The story and its characters could have been handled in more mature and empathetic ways if these writers wanted to connect with their audience. Instead we are left with unlikable brats who clearly have nothing more than selfish motives throughout. An audience is capable of liking people like these, but it needs to be given a reason. We are given nothing. Additionally, I feel like the creators wanted to make something provocative and artistic and in the process built a 90 minute episode where no real story develops for the first half of it. It is a snooze-fest but there is a some nice music thrown in here and there, if you can forgive the awfully cheesy slow motion crap associated with those moments.