It turns out that the CW did come through with its requisite guilty pleasure show this year after all. Whereas the much-hyped 90210 reboot is just plain guilty, their other Tuesday night drama "Privileged" is the pleasure. Megan Smith is a recent Yale grad trying to make it in the world with her writing degree. Unfortunately, instead of writing the next great biography she's stuck working for an NYC tabloid. When her apartment building goes up in flames and she loses her job in the same day, a door unexpectedly opens bringing her back to the ultra-rich society in Palm Springs where she grew up. Her task? Tutor spoiled teenage twin granddaughters of the rich and the famous so they can go to Duke.
Another show about rich people (see "The OC", "Gossip Girl", "90210"), you ask? Sort of. The focus this time is on our outsider, Megan, so a lot of time is spent poking fun at the lifestyle instead of seeing how cool and glamorous it is to be stinking rich. Another plus is that she's an adult, so we hopefully won't get bogged down in the minutiae of high school life once class is in session in future episodes. Joanna Garcia ("Reba", "Welcome to the Captain") brings a high level of energy to the spunky and sarcastic lead role. I'd seen her before on last year's short-lived "Captain" comedy, but here she's a revelation bringing just the kind of humor shows like this need.
Although it fills the role of a one-hour drama in the network's schedule, this feels more like a comedy to me. It fills a niche that shows like (dare I say) "Gilmore Girls" used to occupy. Sure the plot may be a little obvious so far: one twin is nice, the other bitchy; there's an obligatory love triangle; and an estranged family, but "Privileged" is genuinely entertaining. I can't say that about a lot of shows on the boob tube these days.
If you're currently giving attention to "90210" or other such drek, I strongly urge you to check this out instead. It's unfortunate when worthy shows are overlooked because the hype machine hasn't been employed in their favor, and that seems to be the case here. No matter if you believe in them or not, the pilot last week did horribly in the Nielsen ratings so it's probably going to need some help if its planning on sticking around. It's on at the same time as Fox's "Fringe" (coming to a post near you), so I won't be able to watch it live but I'm definitely going to keep up with it online. Thanks to the CW streaming full episodes on their website, you should too.
4 comments:
I did catch the premiere in reruns and it's pretty good. The problem -- I am not sure that once I go back to work I'm going to have time for all the new shows that have been added to the DVR. Even I had to admit that 90210 is REALLY bad, so I guess that's one less hour to worry about trimming.
I'm still in shock that reneged and went with 90210 over this one. 90210 has been given a full season order, and I have a bad feeling that this one is not going to be around all that much longer. Too bad... the world needs more cute, feel-good TV.
Where is the post about Fringe? Are you still watching? Mike gave up a week ago. I also swore that I was giving up, but then the new Direct TV DVR recorded it and I ran out of TV to watch and gave in. MORE BLOGGING, LESS WORKING!
Long time no post. Though I will miss the picture of the yoga/pilates workout, it is very calming.
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