It’s my favorite time of the year: new fall TV shows and the return of my favorite shows. I’ve already been enjoying the return of The Mindy Project, Modern Family, and The Big Bang Theory for a couple of weeks, and it’s been great, but I definitely needed a couple of new shows to spice things up a bit. ABC premiered two new shows, Selfie and Manhattan Love Story on Tuesday night, and I have to say, I was glad I gave them a chance. Here’s my take on the new back-to-back rom coms:
Selfie:
If you watched this show, you probably can no longer say, “How are you?” in a normal voice. The premise of the show is unique, and it’s not your typical rom com. Eliza, a 20-something woman with a career in sales is completely social media obsessed and self-involved. She’s sort of an exaggerated version of all the 20-something women out there (none of us are really that bad, are we?). After Eliza suffers from an embarrassing viral video, she enlists Henry, her uptight Asian coworker to give her a make-under.
In reality, Henry needs Eliza as much as she needs him, and there’s definitely a glimpse of this at the end of the first episode. It’s hard to tell whether there will be an element of romance between these two. At the end they say some nice things about each other, and they have the love/ hate thing going on, but it’s unclear what that will turn into. There are also the book club girls down the hall who ‘s purpose, other than to sing an a capella version of “Bad Romance”, is unclear.
Overall, this show has a lot of potential to be great, mainly because Karen Gillan who plays Eliza is a real gem. I’m definitely giving the rest of the first season a chance.
Manhattan Love Story:
Okay, I’m going to get some flack for this one because this new show has not received the best of reviews, but I kind of loved it. I might be biased because I was that person who watched Greek and liked Evan (Jake McDorman, who plays Peter in Manhattan Love Story) better than Cappie and then felt really sad at the end when Cappie and Casey rode off into the sunset. Somehow, I feel like Evan is getting his revenge now, even though I know that’s not how TV works.
I agree, the show lacks any really interesting plot (girl moves to New York, boy and girl go out, boy acts like douchebag, girl forgives him), but it was only one episode. Plus, Peter is a cute, sensitive douchebag, which makes the whole thing work. There’s also the fact that there are voiceovers telling you what the characters are thinking, which is kind of interesting in a good way.
Overall, I’m giving this one a chance, even though there’s a good chance that it won’t get a second season and then I’ll be really sad. Remember Are You There, Chelsea?, the show based on Chelsea Handler’s life in which also included Jake McDorman and was cancelled after one season? Why do I do this to myself?