“Samantha Who?” — Pilot
Ladies and genltemen… Christina Applegate!
It feels like the fall season has been underway for ages, and yet here we are still getting new series premieres. I’m sure there’s some sort of rhyme or reason as to why this is, perhaps the networks’ desire to wait until the initial onslaught of new programming has ebbed a bit, giving shows they might think need a little nurturing the space they deserve. The problem with this is, for me at least, completely forgetting a series is about to launch until stumbling upon it in the cable guide. Last night ABC debuted Samantha Who?, a new single-camera comedy about a woman who wakes from a coma with amnesia and slowly finds out that she used to be a completely awful human being. More after the jump…
To say the show is fantastic would be a sizable overstatement. It’s pretty good, but certainly not great. That being said, of the three new comedies ABC is currently airing (this, Cavemen and Carpoolers) Samantha Who? feels like the only series that has any potential whatsoever at making its way all the way through the season. This is due to two significant points.
First, Christina Applegate is fantastic in the show. Really, she’s the reason to watch. The plot, the comedy, the supporting cast, well they’re all as forgettable as a show about amnesia could possibly make them, but Applegate is such a natural talent she elevates everything around her. Since Married… With Children she’s kind of bounced around Hollywood and Broadway looking for a venue that could capture her natural talents and seemingly endless quantities of liquid charm. Will Ferrell smartly cast her in Anchorman, but that was over three years ago. Samantha Who?, based on the pilot at least, is a perfect fit. It gives her the ability to play broad comedy, a little romance and some light drama in an easily digestible sitcom format.This is an actor, like Peter Krause or Connie Britton, who was absolutely made for television, which sounds like a backhanded compliment but shouldn’t. The idea of television as second-tier celebrity is rapidly depleting, and frankly, it’s a completely different medium that demands a different skill set from its actors. Applegate has those skills in spades.
The second thing going in favor of Samantha Who? is the ABC network. Since the new golden age started at the beginning of this decade each of the big three (and to an extent FOX, as well) has turned into something of a massive-scale mainstream niche marketplace, meaning, ABC, NBC and CBS have (intentionally or unintentionally) build their lineups around around a specific network identity. CBS is the place for crime shows, guy-fare and old-school situation comedies. This has worked for them quite well over the years and shows no sign of letting up anytime soon.
NBC created for themselves the biggest problem in crafting a network with the most artistically viable series and creative voices and yet they have done this on a network budget and now find it difficult to pay the bills. If The Office and Friday Night Lights and even to an extent Heroes and Chuck were on, say, USA they’d be the biggest smash hits ever, but on over-the-air free TV, they amount to something of a disappointment, which I suppose is why you see the network this season trying to go after the sci-fi audience, hoping that perhaps they can put their stamp on the broadcast spectrum that way (it’s a good idea, at the very least, but has yet to prove successful).
ABC saw what CBS did and went the other direction entirely, courting women. This is why I give Samantha Who? a good shot at survival. It feels like the first comedy post Sex and the City to capture the essence of that show without being anything like it. It also finds itself smack dab in the middle of a lineup perfectly suited for success (between Dancing with the Stars and The Bachelor) so long as the reality viewers don’t freak out at the sight of actors reading written lines. Of course these are the same reasons as to why Cavemen and Carpoolers will fail (I think we’ve all learned at this point that “actually being funny” has little to do with a show’s success or failure), they simply don’t fit the network mold (one could also make a case for the diminishing returns of Lost this past season as its targeted audience is much broader than the 18-49 year old women the network normally seeks).
In a way, I’m curious if all of this actually makes a show more enjoyable. Had Samantha Who? premiered on CBS, I’d probably have written it off, but seeing it on ABC, amongst a slate of shows with similar themes, might give it a bit more legitimacy and could ultimately make it easier to get wrapped up in. It’s interesting to think about and makes one look at all of the failed good shows of recent years and wonder if they were on a different network with a different set of priorities if they might have succeeded.
