So am I the only one who watched "Karen Sisco" last night?

Cafe Society
1

I was kind of surprised to come in this morning and not see a thread praising the coolest, slickest TV premiere in quite a while. So I guess it’s up to me. If you didn’t watch it, you missed something really fun and engaging.

It’s based on the Elmore Leonard character as first written in Out of Sight — a tough, smart U.S. Marshal in Florida, with a great relationship with her dad, and nasty criminals for her to bust everywhere you turn.

The character was played by J-Lo in the movie adaptation, a starmaking turn, but Carla Gugino (who’s the mom in the Spy Kids movies) is even better: smarter, tougher, more attractive, more soulful. Dennis Farina played the father in the movie, and again the TV show has an upgrade: Robert Forster, rescued from obscurity by Tarantino’s Jackie Brown and in fine form in this show, wise and loving but still sarcastic and a specific person.

The dialogue crackles with originality and wit, and the setting, the touristified faux-tropical candy-colored plastic of Miami, hasn’t looked this good since Miami Vice. The supporting cast avoids cliche: Sisco’s boss knows she’s the most competent marshal he’s got, but he also knows she’s a little unpredictable and needs close supervision; he is neither the benevolent father figure nor the tightass police captain: he’s just her boss.

The storyline in the series premiere was kind of a knockoff of Out of Sight, wherein Karen discovers her boyfriend might be a criminal and tries to overcome her serious attraction to him, so that aspect wasn’t so hot, but apparently it’s not the actual pilot episode; the network chose to run this one first because of its familiarity (:rolleyes: typical), and we’ll get the real pilot in a couple of weeks.

I laughed out loud, I cared about the characters, and I’ll be tuning in next week. You should too. And then let’s hope ABC rescues the show from its graveyard position opposite the powerhouse Law & Order.

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Oh, and the very end (where she finds the guy on the boat) was kind of lame, but by that point I didn’t care; I’d already decided I liked the show and would be sticking with it.

3

Meh. I turned it off 45 minutes in because it just didn’t hook me. Maybe I’ll like some of the next ones.

And the intro reminded me too much of those hated Orvis commercials.

4

The opening titles? I liked them. Nice distinctive style.

I muted the third quarter (I was on the phone), so missed everything between where she picked up the bottle the boyfriend had handled/when the partner gave the boyfriend the gun (which ever came second) and all the denouements at the end. Agree, “I was talking about us, too” thing was a wee bit cheesy.

Overall though, I liked it a lot – I’ll definitely be watching it again.

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I taped it but haven’t watched it yet. I haven’t read any of the other posts in this thread (yet) but I am very excited about the show and hope it’s consistently good and a success.

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I liked it quite a bit – it’s a show that’s more driven by mood and character than plot, which I find very appealing. And it ended on a nicely melancholy note. Gugino is great – and as Cervaise said, way more appealing than Lopez – as is Forster. (And I liked Ms. Lopez in Out of Sight – wish she’d do more work like that.)

I couldn’t tell if some of the pointed comments about sleeping with bank robbers were supposed to indicate that Sisco’s (earlier?) relationship with Foley (from OOS) was known or not, but I don’t really care. I’d love an update on his whereabouts, though. (Actually, it makes me wonder if the show is based more on Leonard’s novel or the movie; the Sisco/Foley relationship is a little more conclusively over in the book.)

7

It was ok…sort of a wannabe Alias with a little bit of Rockford Files and Miami Vice thrown in.

Next week looks better with Danny DeVito and Rhea Perleman showing up in guest roles (what with DeVito being one of the producers, this is not a surprise).

Actually, I was hoping for a better show - but I know first episodes of new shows can’t all be “wow”…so I will probably watch a few more episodes.

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I liked the ads enough to force my husband to watch it! We both liked it. I thought it was very well done for regular TV. I liked the humor & maybe the end was a bit tired, but I figure they need to have some easy stuff to hook the masses. I hope it works, I’m tired of everything I enjoy getting canceled.

9

I was prepared to enjoy it but thought it was boring. I don’t have any more concrete critique than that – boring. (Also, the end at the boat was horrid.)

–Cliffy

10

I turned it off after 20 minutes, didn’t hold my attention. Seemed like another cop/detective show, albeit with a more attractive person. Same formula.

11

After watching last night’s show, I’ll definitely be tuning in for the next few weeks. I don’t know how it’s doing in the ratings (a brief net search indicates “not well”) but I’m certainly enjoying the show.

Everyone I’ve mentioned it to in real life thinks it’s an Alias ripoff, but except for the lead character being a gun-friendly chick, there’s not much resemblance. Karen Sisco isn’t a melodrama, for one thing – not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s a comedy at heart, with a loose, easygoing sense of plot and with most of the humor coming from the characters and their dialogue.

One thing I liked about last night’s episode was how it wrapped up the plot – with the brothers going back to prison – then stuck around for a few scenes to get a little more comfortable in the characters’ lives.

They probably need one or two more regular or recurring characters – I love them both, but her relationship with her father is already feeling a little overdone. But the stories have been resolutely uncute, pushing into unexpected territory as much as they mine the genre cliches.

Kinda like Buffy, but again, not so much with the melodrama. Buffy carried the fate of the world on her shoulders; Karen just carries the fates of a few loser criminals, and has learned how to keep it from slowing her down.

Glad to see Carla Gugino in something worthy, too. Long may she sashay through ABC primetime dressed to the nines.

12

I was going to bump this thread also. Everything I liked about last week’s premiere (sense of humor, loosey-goosey style, Carla rrowr! Gugino) is definitely on display in the second episode, and all the problems I had last week (the derivative premise, the lame ending) are gone.

During the show, the second or third time they did a slow pan up Gugino as she walked toward the camera, I said, “Wow, they can’t get enough of that shot, can they?” And my wife said, “Well, can you?” And I thought about it a second and said, “Nope.” :smiley: