US TV

In the US: Tuesdays, 9/8c, NBC
In the UK: Acquired by E4. Will air late 2014/early 2015

Romance is officially dead. Manhattan Love Story was the first of the US Autumn shows to get cancelled, and A To Z has just been given its marching orders, leaving the not-especially-romantic Selfie and NBC’s Marry Me as the last of the potential suitors, forlornly looking around in the hope that their dates are going to show up some time soon.

To be honest, though, I’d be surprised if Marry Me wasn’t stood up soon, too. Based on the real-life meeting and eventual marriage of writer David Caspe and actress Casey Wilson, it runs through the gamut of relationship events that can occur leading up to and following a marriage proposal (episode one), from moving in together (episode two) through to, erm, Halloween (episode three). And with Caspe (Happy Endings) writing and both Wilson and Ken Marino (Party Down) starring, it should be good.

Unfortunately, the most it ever does is make you admire it and occasionally smile wryly. As I said in the first episode, it clearly wants to be the new I Love Lucy, to the extent – it turns out – that Marino and Wilson actually dress up as Arnaz and Ball for Halloween. But really, despite some good writing, it’s never actually very funny. It tries hard to be edgy, to the extent of, say, blurring out the screen and beeping over dialogue to avoid nude and verbal indiscretions. But it’s that knowing edginess and the writers’ tendency to take what could be a good short, one-scene joke and then milk it for an entire episode that undermines its efforts.

It’s not without value and it’s enjoyable in its own way. But I’m not sure it’s a keeper.

Barrometer rating: 3
Rob’s prediction: Will last a season but not more than that unless it’s very, very lucky.

In the US: Mondays, 9/8c, The CW
In the UK: Acquired by E4. Will air in 2015

As I mentioned when I reviewed the first episode of Jane The Virgin, The CW’s adaptation of a telenovela about a miraculously inseminated young woman called Jane, there’s a right and a wrong way both to do diversity and to adapt telenovelas. And the first episode of the show was very much the right way to do it. A fun, clever meta little story, possessed of one of the best, most knowing narrators on TV, it knew what it was and played with the genre and convention to give us a wonderfully ludicrous piece of soapy fun.

The trouble from the show since then has been living up to the high standard of the first episode. Because knowing-soapiness is fun, but soapiness by itself can be a bit dull. While episode two redeemed itself in the final five minutes with some wonderfully exciting and bizarrely improbable twists, those five minutes sat at the end of an otherwise conventional bit of soap opera plotting. No moustache twirling, minimal “hey, I’m in a telenovela!” self-awareness and even the narration felt a bit limp.

Unfortunately, episode 3 continued this downward escape from escaping from reality, with a somewhat conventional attempt at farce and intrigue as Jane attempted to lose her virginity. The narrator did his best to salvage it, but overall you could have been watching a pretty standard soap opera and not noticed the difference.

When Jane The Virgin is good, it’s very, very good – a fun, knowing, innovative show for those who are fans of telenovelas and those who biggest exposure has been Ugly Betty. Unfortunately, more often than not, it’s a regular old soap opera running through plot lines and ideas that you’ll have seen before. To some extent, that familiarity will provide comfort to some telenovela fans, but to others – as indeed the ratings have borne out – it’ll be something of a turn-off.

I might stick with Jane, but telenovelas aren’t really my thing and it’s been harder to justify watching it. We’ll just have to see how it goes.

Barrometer rating: 3
Rob’s prediction: Will be lucky to last more than a season