First Impressions - Courting Alex

Just two weeks after Emily’s Reason’s Why Not (see my review – First Impressions) for the first and maybe last time, CBS debuted their sitcom about a woman in her early thirties in New York City looking for love while juggling her job with Courting Alex. Now there are some differences between the two shows the biggest being that Courting Alex doesn’t have a narrator unlike almost every new show this season. Another big difference is that, unlike Heather Graham, Jenna Elfman isn’t an absolutely horrible actress.

But there are still are similarities between the shows other than the setting the most notable being that neither induced any laughter. Not one. There was barely even a chuckle inducing joke in the show.

The show follows Elfman’s lawyer character around as she tries to balance her job in her law firm, run by her dad, played by the poorly used Dabney Coleman, and a dating life. And at the beginning of the show she’s not doing a good job as she took a business call while on a date. But things seem to change when she meets Scott, played by Ed’s Dr Burton. Scott’s more of a free spirit whose tavern happens to be in the way of a skyscraper Elfman’s firm is trying to build. But instead of convince him to sell, she instead is attracted to him and through him looks to be more spontaneous. Or that looks like what the show will be about, not that I’ll stick around to find out.

Verdict: Not as bad as Emily’s Reason Why Not, but that’s not saying much.


On a side note it looks like UPN and the WB will be no longer at the end of this TV season as they will be combining come next fall. I did read somewhere that will be announced soon that Veronica Mars will be on the new network CW, for a third season, hopefully this is true. I may have more on this tomorrow when I discuss the upcoming Smallville death or Thursday during my usually Toss Up segment. And maybe my new friends at UPN (whom I hope will also make the transition to CW) will give me some insight into the situation.