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Twitter'Roommates' and 'Sophie' reviews
"Roommates" and "Sophie" are off to a bad start even before they debut on ABC Family on Monday, March 23, mainly because they're taking over the timeslot for "Kyle XY," which left irate fans in the lurch with its recent cliffhanger series finale.
Of course, these new shows will help ABC Family to capitalize on the audience of young women who watch the massively popular "The Secret Life of the American Teenager," which airs its season finale the same night. Unfortunately, instead of continuing its trend of thoughtful, character-driven programming that contributed to the success of "Kyle XY," "Greek" and "Lincoln Heights," the cable network digs deep and unveils this ... dreck.
ABC Family didn't even offer up a full screener of the first "Roommates" episode, only making a few clips of the show available instead. This is generally a bad sign, but at least TV critics were mercifully spared the full-blown, brain-numbing experience.
Post-college nice guy Mark (Tyler Francavilla) runs into his high school crush Katie (Dorian Brown) and schemes to become her third roommate in hopes that he'll finally win her. Of course, she's still carrying a torch for her lousy on-again, off-again boyfriend, of whom her friend and roommate Hope (Tamera Mowry) disapproves.
Hope's got her own problems though since she lost her swanky TV exec job, but keeps up appearances by dressing up each day and leaving for work ... as a bitter coffee barista. Also joining the hijinks are roommate James (Tommy Dewey) and Mark's best friend Thom (David Weidoff).
From the laugh track to the incredibly contrived dialog, "Roommates" feels as if the writers of Disney Channel sitcoms decided to cobble together a preternaturally pale "Friends" knock-off. But while "Hannah Montana" can be forgiven for its juvenile tone, the formula is a bad fit with "Roommates," which is supposed to appeal to somewhat older demographic.
Marginally more successful is "Sophie," which revolves around the unfortunate talent agency owner Sophie Parker, played by the necessarily perky Natalie Brown. After a fortune teller predicts that Sophie will have a continuing string of bad luck after which she'll really hit rock bottom, her life becomes a shambles.
Her baby daddy boyfriend of five years, Rick (Sebastian Spence), is the one behind her misery. First, he leaves her for her best friend and top client Melissa Bryant (Amy Ciupak Lalonde). Then he starts up a rival agency and steals her clients and even her receptionist. Poor Sophie is left with her one has-been actress Estelle (Sara Botsford), best gay friend Matt (Jeff Geddis) and a baby that's going to demand to be born any minute.
While the concept of the single career mom picking up the pieces is strong enough for endless stories, the execution has much to be desired. Yes, women can identify with Sophie's troubles, but frankly, the first episode is just not funny. Most of the characters, including Sophie at times, are just plain annoying -- especially Estelle and her adopted Chinese daughter Ophelia (Chantelle Chung).
It's likely that after the rash of bad luck in the first episode, Sophie's character will have the chance to become more proactive, a trait she lacks so far and desperately needs for us to like her. So far Brown handles her harried character well, which is probably the only thing that saves the show.
As it is, however, neither "Roommates" nor "Sophie" looks to be strong enough -- even combined -- to be worthy of taking "Kyle XY's" place. Don't get too attached to either of these shows.
What did you think of the shows? Are they worthy of the ABC Family brand?
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sounds like 2 crappy shows replacing a good show like kyle xy. I still cant beleive it. I really hope another station will pick up kyle xy.
Sophie has aired 2 seasons in Canada (which means it's a cheap import for ABC Family and you may sadly be stuck with it for a while) and it doesn't get better or funnier. It gets much, much worse. Natalie Brown should be a star in the making, but Sophie is not a star-maker. Ratings are dismal in Canada (fewer than 200,000 viewers on one of our major networks, which in US terms would be fewer than 2 million).
Just because "Sophie" has run for two seasons in Canada doesn't mean American audiences will be subjected to all those episodes - unless ABC Family stupidly signed a contract agreeing to air all the Canadian produced episodes.
If both series are as bad as these reviews, they will likely not survive past their initial 13 episodes.
ABC Family should be developing comedies, but these two don't look like hits. Perhaps the small screen version of "The Ten Things I Hate About You" coming later this year will be better.
As Diane noted, "Sophie" is a Canadian show, produced by the CBC. They gave it a huge promotional push, but it simply isn't very good (sadly, true of most CBC comedies) and has tanked in the ratings. This has to be considered not much more than schedule filler for ABC Family.
I can't believe ABCF canceled Kyle XY for these two shows which are, comparatively, crap.
:-(
Save Kyle XY!
I wouldn't mind it if ABC Family brought back Middleman ...
I watched Roommates, and it was pretty good. I think it will click with Secret Life's audience.
bring back KYLE XY wahhhh!
I've watched Sophie here in Canada since day one and love it! Give it a chance, it's a fun and completely charming show. I'd given up on watching comedies on television as they've become dreadful. Only the ones that are now produced by the CBC (Sophie, Being Erica, Little Mosque on the Prairie and the like) gave me hope that the genre has not had the life sucked out of it.
if you like kyle xy help get it back savethetub.com