Tag Archives: Eleven

Friends With Better Lives Coming to Eleven

James Van Der Beek Stars in Friends With Better Lives.  Source: Provided
James Van Der Beek Stars in Friends With Better Lives. Source: Provided

The pulled-after-eight-episodes American comedy Friends With Better Lives (Or FWBL) is finally making is Aussie TV debut with Channel Eleven airing the series starting September 9th.

From the press release: Friends With Better Lives is a romantic comedy about six friends at different stages in their lives: married, divorced, newly engaged and single. They are all outwardly happy but are finding it tough to look at each other without wondering who really has the better life.

Central couple Bobby (Kevin Connolly) and Andi (Majandra Delfino) are married with kids with another on the way who are struggling to find a balance between being married with kids (and being pregnant) and keeping the romance alive in their relationship. Bobby’s best friend and co-worker Will (James Van Der Beek) has just moved in after finding his wife having an affair with their marriage councilor but he refuses to believe the marriage is actually over.

The beautiful Jules (Brooklyn Decker) has found herself a new boyfriend in free-spirted environmentalist Lowell (Rick Donald) who owns and runs a local organic health food coffee shop while Kate (Zoe Lister-Jones) finds herself more successful in her professional life than her romantic one.

Of all the characters, It’s Kate and Will, both steadfast and overtly determined to outdo the other, who bring out the biggest laughs, often finding themselves in a myriad of dating disasters while their happily co-joined friends natter among themselves about the troubles that come with coupledom.

Like most comedies that have come out in the past few years, the humor offered up by FWBL leans more towards the adult side (think Two and a Half Men, 2 Broke Girls and Mom) thankfully though, it’s not as crass as the aforementioned shows that seem to push the boundaries of what’s subtle and what would make one blush.  FWBL finds the right fit with it’s taste level resulting in a nice balance between comedy and sexual comedy – a certain scene (and very funny one at that) in the pilot episode see’s a surprise birthday party resulting in another surprise all on it’s own for married couple Bobby and Andi.

While Two and Half Men and 2 Broke Girls never appealed to me, FWBL fitted quite nicely into my viewing roster and I found myself looking forward to the next episodes and while the show itself is nothing really new, FWBL is just a fun show with a fun cast that offers up some fun laughs.

Yes, FWBL was pulled after just eight episodes in America.  As someone who was enjoying the series, I assumed everyone was watching it, so I was certainly surprised by the news of it’s cancellation (considering FWBL comes from the same network that brings us the god-awful Mom) but hopefully, Eleven will air the additional four episodes not aired in the US.

So here it is, I enjoyed FWBL, was sad to see it cancelled and can’t wait to see those missing last four episodes if and when they eventually air.  Give it a shot, see what you think, even if it’s just to see James Van Der Beek playing funny after his stellar turn in Don’t Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23.

Friends With Better Lives begins Tuesday September 9th, 9pm on Eleven.

Does GLEE Still Have an Audience?

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Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Blaine (Darren Criss) Cuddle Up in the Glee Season 5 Finale -Source Provided

Does anyone still watch Glee anymore?  It’s a fair question to ask now that the phenomenon that was once everywhere and totally unavoidable has seemed to slowly fade away and die off.  The show that gave us the term ‘Gleeks’ and were constantly featured in the iTunes singles and album charts and even gave us a 3D concert movie now no longer seems to have the pulling power it once had.

In America, the season 5 finale drew only 1.9 million viewers (in it’s hey day – season 2, Glee was pulling in over 12 million viewers) and was even beaten by the finale of the CW’s The Originals.  So dire are the ratings that Fox Entertainment chairman KevinReilly stated that they plan to trim Glee’s final season from it’s standard 22 episodes to just 13.

Here in Australia, the musical comedy drew big ratings for network ten, but now, 5 seasons on, the show has been relegated to the channel’s second station – Eleven, with the season 5 finale airing tomorrow night, May 16th at 7:30pm.

Remember the last time Glee appeared in the iTunes charts?

So the question begs to be asked.  What happened?  Have audiences grown too old for the show?  Did Glee jump the shark somewhere along the way?  Could the death of star Cory Monteith play a part in people turning off?

Either way, die-hard Gleeks will be happy to know that they still have at a minimum another 13 episodes for the final season.

GLEE season 6 story line speculation

 

What do you think?  Is it time for Gleeks to close the curtain for the final time?