october road. thursday 9 p.m. ABC
October Road has a great premise: A famous young author living in New York City, who made his name on a best-seller that painted his small hometown in a bad light, returns home to face the people and life he ran away from 10 years before.
Then the main character serenades the Dean of the local college on her lawn in a piss-poor attempt to get a job. And then the main character helps a 10 year old serenade the girl he loves in front of hundreds at the annual pumpkin fest.
And so go the stupid parts of October Road. Honestly, this show has a lot of potential. The cast is great. The main character, Nicholas Garrett, is played by Bryan Greenburg, who also played Jake Jagielski on One Tree Hill. Garrett’s ex-girlfriend, and potential love interest Hannah Daniels, is played by Laura Prepon. The rest of the cast really looks like a group of friends from a small midwest/eastern town, except slightly more good-looking. And Aubrey, another potential love interest played by Odette Yustman, is really easy on the eyes and even hotter than Prepon. The characters are fun and the actors who portray them do a great job.
Unfortunately, in addition to some of the generic serenade moments, there are some dumb fundamentals, like why Garrett hasn’t talked to his friends prior to his return, and why he returned to Knights Ridge in the first place. As a viewer, I don’t understand why Garrett has talked to no one from his childhood in 10 years, with the exception of his father and brother. He hasn’t returned to his little town, despite the fact that we know it is within driving distance of NYC, even one time. Not a Thanksgiving, not a Christmas, not a birthday, not a wedding. Nothing. Nor has he talked to any of his friends. He has no idea that his ex, Prepon, has a child, despite the fact that they live right next door to his father. He has no idea that one of his best friends is married with children. He has no idea that his old nemesis, the stereotypical jock-asshole, is a wealthy local developer. And he has somehow not talked to his very best friend since childhood in 10 years. Perhaps I could buy this if Garrett was living across the country. But not once does he try to contact his friends, or them him, when he lives just a few hours away?
Also, the reason he must return to his town is weak. Couldn’t the writers give us something better than “Garrett’s been asked to teach a one day class on the art of the novel” at the local no-name college? His dad and brother don’t serve all that much of a purpose, kill one of them off, and have the main character return to handle funeral arrangements. Or make up another best friend, who dies a tragic death, and Nicholas returns for the funeral and is reunited with the old gang. But no. Garrett’s agent calls and wants him to return to teach a one-day class, for which his is incredibly underqualified.
I’m all about suspension of disbelief. Supernatural, on the CW, is one of my favorite shows, and after watching it throughout its entire second season, sure I’ve wondered how they have cell phones, who pays them, how they get money, all while being wanted by the FBI for murder, even if those they killed were evil demons. But when we’re dealing with werewolves, spirits that manifest themselves into the latest tabloid headlines and such a generic good vs evil storyline, I’m already stretching my imagination. October road however, is a plausible premise, but then demands that I don’t think about many of the most basic questions that arise.
Even so, I continue watching october road. I like it, I like the characters and there hasn’t been a new Office or My Name Is Earl in weeks. Survivor has moved to Wednesdays and the O.C. had it’s series finale almost two months ago. Hopefully the writers can fight the urge to write predictable dialogue and cringeworthy moments, because other than that, they’re on to something.
Well, to be fair, Supernatural does answer that question early in season 1, they just haven’t talked about it lately. (The brothers hustle pool and, more importantly, commit credit card fraud to fund their lifestyle.)
Oh I remember that, I just never see them doing it anymore. They’re always too busy on the run or almost dying to be committing credit card fraud. Also, do they change cell phone numbers all the time? You know the FBI would be monitoring Dean’s calls. I mean, they could get disposable cell phones and throw them away when they’re done, but how do the other hunters contact them? Seems like it would be a pain to have to notify people of their different phone numbers every week, but then, I guess they don’t keep in contact with that many people.
You and your pesky need for realism! (Yeah, ok, I was wondering that too.) I think they only actually keep in touch with Ellen and Ash (and we generally see them initiating calls, not the other way around), but they obviously have the same numbers for long periods of time because they give out numbers to people they’ve saved as though they’ll be able to reach them there later, and they’ve gotten cases from old clients. A little research suggests that the FBI would be able to find them in approximately 30 seconds. On the other hand, no one has specifically been after them until recently (due to the ending of Skin), so maybe it’s not that unrealisitic. I hear there’s another FBI episode coming up too.
The other thing that I notice is that the series timeline is extremely unclear. Some episodes seem to start a few minutes after the previous one, while others make it clear that weeks have passed. They might have more time than we think to defraud the populace. Some of their escapades are also funded by other people (e.g. Jo paying for the apartment in No Exit). Or, then again, maybe I’m trying way too hard to justify all this since I like the show.
Wow.