New 2009 show: Eastwick

I didn't like the movie THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK. I don't remember it except for the fact that it had Jack Nicholson and Cher. It was someone else's idea of sophisticated fun. Just as Cher was someone else's idea of a great actress.

Here, Nicholson is replaced by Paul Gross who's aged quite a bit since DUE SOUTH days. Or it's just makeup in an attempt to hide the fact that a Canadian is playing the Devil. He has a lot of the qualities that Nicholson brought to the role -- tho he fits better on the small screen than on the big one.

The 3 female characters here have different names than the WITCHES OF EASTWICK, so this isn't a remake -- altho, Rebecca Romijn reminds me of Cher. She gives her line readings some semblence of reality, but not the same reality from moment to moment.

Unfortunately for her, there's an actress who does -- and she's on the same show and shows up Rebecca with every utterance. Her name is Lindsay Price and she's the shapely brunette with the Asian cast to her eyes. What the devil?! Turns out Lindsay's real life parents were brother and sister! Well... her mother was an adopted Korean -- and she would grow up to marry her "brother" and together they would produce this pretty and talented actress.

Skill at dialog is vital to this show cuz the woman jabber as if they lived on Wisteria Lane. So it's good that the third actress is capable. She's the petite Jaime Ray Newman.

Oh, and Veronica Cartwright has a small role in this. She appeared in the movie.

The title has been reduced to EASTWICK, and that could represent the ambition behind this TV series. So it isn't highly polished. It still might be an improvement over the movie. I had a certain amount of fun watching the pilot. Think I'll try out the next ep.

I wasn`t really aware of Jaime Ray Newman till she turned up in the season of Eureka whch just finished airing over here.

Hurray for Paul Gross in any role.

I had to read the Lindsay Price news twice ! Skimming stuff can lead to shocks.

Digitalspy

Eastwick`s been bought by the Hallmark channel over here.

Pish.

Oh dear, is Hallmark not on Freeview then ?

Feck! Arse! DRINK!

There there.

<< Runs to cuddle SKY digibox >>

haha!

Nice review John, I might give this a whirl.

I used to have Witches Of Eastwick on vhs, sadly it was thrown away when I moved and forgot to take my vhs player with me...

Hi Viv --

I'm actually questioning the idea of buying new DVDs for my home library. I usually don't rewatch them enuf when they're on hand to justify the expense of the brand new film. I'm gonna try to rent the popular ones that'll always be available at outlets -- and to focus my purchases on hard-to-find ones.

i will give it a try

I have watched the first two episodes. It's very Wisteria Lane as John says. Still its fun!

Out of the blue we came across a note over on the Hollywood gossip blog Deadline.com that the ABC series Eastwick has been successful for ABC, which means it will probably not be one of this year's canceled shows. Now, we don't have anything against the series; we were just kind of shocked to hear that it was considered a success, since, honestly, we haven't heard anything at all about it. Here's what they're saying, though:

That the Warner Bros show even made it on the air is a minor miracle since it had been in TV development hell for eons and is based on that really old 1987 movie in the first place. But "Eastwick has been the quiet success story," a top ABC exec tells me. "Especially because we put very little marketing money against it."

According to The Programmiing Insider. EASTWICK has been slipping in the ratings. The Oct 21 2009 episode was seen by only 5 million viewers -- its lowest score yet. And this was not a nite disturbed by the baseball championships.

Although Eastwick was recently called a "quiet success" by ABC, other people are using different words to describe it, words like "doomed" and "loser." In a story about how the fall TV season is shaping up, for instance, MSNBC said the show was "one of the year's most prominent losers."

And over on TV by the Numbers they've labeled it "certain to be canceled," although they think ABC will at least air all 13 produced episodes. Then there is that near-certain sign that a show is in trouble, the dreaded fan petition to try and save it.

According to ads, it starts in the UK on Hallmark on 24th November.

cool

Oh no it isn't.

Not starting ? Not cool ? Or just not available on Miss Bouncy`s TV ?

Startin.

Considering its sad, sad ratings, no one should be surprised to hear that ABC has decided not to order any more episodes of Eastwick, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

But even though that decision effectively cancels the series, ABC has nevertheless said it will air all 13 episodes of the witchy show's original order, and Eastwick remains on the schedule through November.


Guess ABC has conveniently forgotten it earlier called Eastwick a "quiet success" because of the 8.53 million viewer who sampled the pilot and because it started beating NBC's ratings-challenged Jay Leno Show (no big feat). But apparently that success was a little too quiet, and things never got better for the series: Only 4.60 million people watched Eastwick last week.

The drama—based on the John Updike novel and the film, The Witches of Eastwick—is about three women who discover they have supernatural powers and the mysterious man they are drawn to who just might be Satan. The series was created by Maggie Friedman and stars Lindsay Price, Jaime Ray Newman and Rebecca Romijn as the witches.

Other shows in trouble right now include Fox's Dollhouse—which was pulled off the network for November sweeps—and Fringe, which faces the toughest competition on television. Meanwhile, two new shows have done well enough to get a full season pickup including, The CW's Vampire Diaries and ABC's FlashForward.

(SyFy)