October Road : Season One (DVD)

You don’t need a frickin’ map to find “October Road” – all you down is head to Stars Hollow, take a left near ‘Ed’s place, and look for the out-of-shape veteran movie star whose now slumming it in TV land.

Bryan Greenberg, Evan Jones, Slade Pearce, Brad William Henke, Laura Prepon, Tom Berenger

You don’t need a frickin’ map to find “October Road” – all you down is head to Stars Hollow, take a left near ‘Ed’s place, and look for the out-of-shape veteran movie star whose now slumming it in TV land.

Ah, poor Tom Berenger. It was either this or another one of those inspired “Sniper” sequels, I guess?

Granted, if TB had decided to do say, “Heroes” or even, “Lost” (though he’s probably more suited to a “Law and Order” or “CSI”), instead of this rather middling and sudsy teen drama.. there’d be no beef. But when good actors like himself, terrific in films like “Platoon” and “Someone to Watch Over Me”, are forced to live out their pre-twilight years playing ‘Dad’ to a twenty-something nobody on a whimsy series like this- its just sad. Sure, he’s good in it, but he’s got nothing to frickin’ do it – he might as well be taking a snooze with the show’s writers.

“October Road” is to TV drama what “Models Inc” was to “Melrose Place” – a tolerable but mostly unsatisfying time-filler that leaves a skid mark. Sure, it pushes all your buttons in the right spots – or tries to – and might even evoke a laugh at times (granted, I really only got a giggle out of a couple of scenes from the pilot), but for all intents and purposes, it’s a mid-season filler disguised as a Fall-TV highlight. But mostly, it’s just too sweet and syrupy to swallow…. you’ll be diabetic by the time the pilot finishes.

Bryan Greenberg (he was in that Meryl Streep/Uma Thurman clunker “Prime”) stars as Nick, an author and city-slicker whose returning to his home town -one of those squeaky clean little townships, the likes of which Cusack passed through in “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” – in an effort to get rid of his writer’s block. The problem is, Nick transparently used his friends as unflattering literary fodder for his best-selling autobiographical book and they resent him for it.

Aside from Berenger as Nick’s Dad, there’s Laura Prepon (the hot redhead on “That 70’s Show”) as a former flame who Nick up and left all those years ago; best bud Eddie Latekka (Geoff Stults), the good-hearted Owen Rowan (Brad William Henke), the earnest and obnoxious Ikey (Evan Jones), Physical Phil (Jay Paulson), who turned recluse following September 11th, and Aubrey (Odette Yustman),a bohemian college-type.

Ah, I dunno, I suppose it’s ok – but don’t go out of your way. Maybe if the show had been a little more “Grosse Pointe Blank” and less, well, “Ed” it might have worked better. It seems… stale, or something.

Extras include audio commentaries, a behind-the-scenes featurette and a look ahead at – what?! – season two.

Rating :
Reviewer : Clint Morris