Spoilers for last night's "Cupid" coming up just as soon as I shuck some oysters...I was lukewarm on the pilot, in part because I felt the couple of the week weren't interesting enough to justify taking so much time away from Trevor and Claire, in part because it was odd to see Bobby Cannavale and Sarah Paulson having to do so much material (and abbreviated material, at that) from the original pilot. But there were enough good things in it that I was hopeful for later episodes.
"Live and Let Spy," on the other hand, I just disliked.
Again, Trevor and Claire get backburnered in favor of not only the new couple, but a Felix and Lita story. The original show never felt like the "Love Boat" because we were so invested in the story of the main characters, but so far they're appearing so infrequently -- and appearing together even less -- that I'm having trouble caring about them as individuals or as a duo. When Riley told them to "get a room already," it felt like the script had to tell us that Trevor and Claire are supposed to be attracted to each other, because we've been shown precious little evidence of it.
And however thin I found the romantic story last week, it had at least had some engaging touches (the songs, Marguerite Moreau playing Dance Dance Revolution, the way the show dispensed with Holly in about 30 seconds rather than dragging it out). Other than some nice chemistry between Erik Palladino (aka Dave Malucci from "ER") and Julie Ann Emery, this one felt both dull and contrived. They so obviously got along, and so quickly, that all the switches and double switches about spying and secrets just dragged. (Also, why is a modern private eye having photo prints delivered to his door? Wouldn't he just print them himself -- or, better, just look at them on the computer?)
And after getting over the weirdness of seeing Mary Stuart Masterson doing an episodic guest spot(*) -- and in the B-story, no less -- there wasn't a lot to hold onto with the Felix and Lita story. I like both Rick Gomez and Camille Guaty -- and I was amused to see Luis from "Sesame Street" as their dad -- but so far they aren't adding much to the show. As superfluous as Champ often was on the original, he at least gave Trevor another person to bounce off of in situations where it wouldn't make sense to use Claire. Here, we're getting Felix instead of Trevor, not with him.
(*) Her IMDb entry shows she's actually done most of her work in TV lately, but it's either been as a series regular or in a long recurring stint, like on "Law & Order: Sports Utility Vehicle."
I still have enough residual affection for the old show that I'm going to stick around a while, but I don't feel like the new series is off to a strong start.
What did everybody else think?
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