Okay, so that show happened. Well. Umm, let’s start with the basics. The show is called Bigger, and the description is about a young woman who is wondering if there is more to life than what she has. A little vague, sure, so I went with predicting cancellation. 

The show revolves around Layne, a 30-something woman with a steady boyfriend, a vintage clothing store, and five old friends she hangs out with (3 girls, 2 guys).  The steady boyfriend, Greg, has just proposed and she’s unsure of her answer. She tells him she’ll get back to him. In the meantime, while Greg is out of town, she meets Reggie, a larger than Greg one night stand. In short, Greg is a Volvo, Reggie is a Porsche. The episodes are weird length — 30 minutes without commercials. Not a hour-long show nor sitcom length, and it is definitely not really a comedy. The closest it comes to is Sex in the City except set in Atlanta with black friends, and not all girls. And like Carrie Bradshaw, Layne does narration. Except rather than it being a voice over as if Carrie is writing a blog/column, Layne turns to the camera and talks directly while the action continues around her. The first time, I thought, “WTF? Are you serious?”. But you get used to it.

Tanisha Long plays Layne, and she has presence. She’s young, vibrant, articulate. A bit of an old Lisa Bonet vibe, in a sense, but more gravitas. I haven’t seen her in anything before, and in fact, I don’t recognize hardly any of the shows even.

It’s hard to get a handle on her friends…Angell Conwell plays her sexed-up friend, Veronica; Rasheda Crockett plays a quieter, smarter friend Tracey; Tristen J Winger plays a DJ wannebe named Vince who is one of the crew, but didn’t go to college with them; and Ezekial Ajeigbe is a bit jaded when it comes to business and women. They were okay, but like Friends, hard to know who they are until they get their first extended episode.

What I really found odd was the portrayal of Greg. He’s “sold” as a Volvo — safe, reliable, security. But he is beyond annoying. He insists on cleaning menus at restaurants, he will only go to one restaurant, he is OCD for setting the mood the same way every time he wants to have sex, and he’s boring in bed. How he hasn’t ended up at the curb is a mystery. Dry toast is one of the descriptions, and they could have added stale. Meanwhile, Reggie is shown as basically the stud — okay to look at, gets her juices flowing and well-endowed with a talented appendage. How did they NOT call him Mr. Big? Oh right, it is supposed to be a different show.

The episode wasn’t funny, and the “decision” wasn’t particularly new or challenging. And she makes the wrong choice in the end, one that just about every woman would say, “Hell no!” while watching. Every guy too. Anyway. I won’t be watching, but I wasn’t exactly the demographic for the show. I think it will get renewed, and I weep for the future of television. At least the lead is a fresh face.

I am a harsh judge when it comes to sitcoms. Very few catch my interest enough to warrant watching. Sometimes I think it is too much simple serialized joke telling with no plot; other times it is just plainly not funny. But even with my harshness, the new show Bob ♥ Abishola (Bob Hearts Abishola) was better than I expected.

The basic premise is that Bob has a heart attack and winds up as a patient in Abishola’s ward. He is intrigued by her, likes her singing, and because she is nice to him, he wants to say thank you by giving her some of his business merchandise — compression socks. He does, and then he tries to get to know her. They are from two totally different worlds, but he’s trying to get her attention.

The problem for me, and it was present even in the trailers, is I can’t see what Bob sees in Abishola. If he woke up, found her beautiful, and wanted to keep seeing her, that would be one thing. If she did something extraordinary that sparked his interest, sure. If they had some common interest, maybe. But it’s a tough sell in this episode.

Sure, he says she looks like an angel when he first wakes up, but it is so brief, there’s no meat to the item. And then they move on to him needing to pee. She sings to him while he is in the bathroom to get him to be able to pee, and he likes her voice. But he’s not blown away by it. The sole scene that resonates is that he gets her to laugh, and for a moment, her face lights up, and he likes having accomplished his goal to amuse her. But is it enough? The next day, he’s at work with his family, they’re up in his face about something, and he zones out thinking about her singing. Is it enough to spark a romance?

There are a lot of other characters running around, and interactions with them produce the funniest lines in the episode. Amusing, not laugh out loud guffaws. But he gives her the socks he makes, everyone loves them including her, and when he brings some more around, she is willing to take them. And she knows he is interested…there is a good conversation between her and another friend about how picky she can be when she’s at her current age (according to her friend, even a white man should be considered).

He’s sweet, he’s interested, he’s a bit funny, and he’s somewhat successful in business. Plus she likes the socks. I get why she might respond enough to get to know him or at least not chase him away. But there is little to the first encounter to justify the interest from him in the first place. Even if they had shown that he was lonely, all he wants is a kind face sometime, is that too much to ask, and then BAM! show her helping him. Without SOMETHING of a catalyst, I just didn’t find his interest in someone so different to be credible.

I predicted cancellation initially, and now having seen an episode that was better than I expected, I’m still sticking with the same prediction. I just don’t think there’s enough there.

I have to confess a bias going into watching this mini-series. First, I’m male. That one’s a bit obvious. Second, I’m jaded about rape stories that tell the same tale over and over again without any real nuancing or adding anything new to the narrative. An insight we haven’t seen before, perhaps. Without it, it seems exploitative and derivative to me. More “ripped from the headlines” tabloidism than a real attempt at worthwhile television.

The quick opening for the mini-series Unbelievable establishes the basis for the eight-episode arc of a 16-year-old woman living at an apartment complex for at-risk youth who wakes up one night to find a man in a ski mask with a knife in her room. She’s raped, and afterwards, calls a strong ex-foster mom to come help her; several contacts later, and the police are called. The first police officer on the scene interviews her to get all the details and she’s remote, detached as she recites the details, slowly and without any volunteering of info. Her foster mom is present. Two detectives show up, interview her again, and again, she is remote and detached through the recitation. They do a rape kit at the hospital, she tells some friends and family, and a group therapy session, and then calls another ex-foster mom who comforts her with warm emotion and support. Meanwhile, the police find almost no physical evidence.

Without being too cold and clinical, there is nothing in the story up to this point that is new or different. It is, for wont of a better term, retreading almost every episode of L&O: SVU and has been seen in news stories or cop shows dozens of times. And it was my main worry with the show…the story is tragic, it’s far too common, and given the state of the justice system for dealing with sexual assaults, the rest of the tale could be rather linear. While the show is a mini-series, not a series, and thus not an option for “renewal”, there was also nothing up to this point that would make it compelling television.

For the remaining part of the episode, there are four elements that affect watchability of the series. First, in favour, there is an extended scene at the hospital as she goes through the examination. Most shows skip over this pretty fast, no lingering, and it is often shown more in “hinting” than in exposition. Not this show. They show the explanations from the nurse, the requirement to repeat everything, and then some of the medical stuff. Dye on her genitals looking for damaged tissue. Antibiotics in case of STDs. A morning after pill in case of pregnancy. The nurses are portrayed a bit smug and insensitive, but the overall hospital visit is a strong addition.

Second, while most stories assume it is the insensitive man who dismisses the victim’s story, they went in a different direction here, with the detectives starting to question the veracity of her story mainly because the ex-foster mother suggests the victim isn’t acting the way the mother thinks she should — and suggests maybe she made it up for attention. This starts a snowball for an almost self-fulfilling prophecy where absence of evidence leads them to conclude evidence of absence. So she gives up, recants to avoid painfully retelling the story again and again. She doesn’t want to but she can’t take it anymore.

Both are relatively strong elements that argue in favour of watching the show. But two elements go the opposite way. As mentioned above, the victim plays the role very detached and remote. This isn’t accidental, it is to show the arc, but it makes it harder to connect with her character. However, a bigger problem is that the smug and insensitive nurse portrayal is nothing compared to the ham-fisted way in which the detectives switch to neanderthal status, her friends all turn against her, and one of her close friends is hurt because she made up part of the story with him (embellishing it a bit for attention). While anyone watching it can easily see that she’s coping through deflection and denial, nobody else can — including the health system professionals involved. Really? A bit amateurish and lacking in nuance.

While my initial worries that there would be nothing new in the story were unfounded, the amateurish acting and character development for the secondary and tertiary characters make it almost unwatchable. The big change for the rest of the mini-series is the addition of two female detectives to investigate the case, and hopefully they will be fully realized characters rather than caricatures.

But I confess I won’t know. I’m out. Not enough “new” to keep watching.