Accidentally on Purpose

Channel: Ten
Day & time*: Tuesday & Thursday, 7.30 p.m.
(*as at December 2009)

 

Jenna's baby bump

Cross-over is a pretty common phenomenon these days. It’s not unusual any more to see, say, a movie based on a TV series (or a book, or a video game, or even an amusement park ride); but it’s a little less common to find a TV series based on both a book and a movie. Well, if it’s been your desire to find such a beast, look no further than Accidentally on Purpose.

This sit-com/rom-com marks the return to Australian small screens of Jenna Elfman following the demise of Dharma & Greg (her short-lived 2006 series Courting Alex didn’t make it here, at least so far as I recall). The series is officially based on Mary F. Pols’ book of the same name; but it’s also a take on (and logical extension to) Judd Apatow’s hit movie Knocked Up. Indeed, the pilot is almost a condensed version of the film; leaving the remainder of the series to essentially take up where Apatow left off.

You might recall that in Knocked Up, Catherine Heigel’s older career-woman character fell pregnant to the much younger and much flakier character played by Seth Rogen. Funnily enough, in Accidentally on Purpose, Elfman’s older career-woman character Billie falls pregnant to the much younger and much flakier Zack played by Jon Foster.

The background to this development is that Billie, a movie critic with a major newspaper, is feeling slighted by long-time on-again-off-again boyfriend and commitment-phobe James (Grant Show) – who also happens to be her boss. She throws herself into a torrid affair with Zack, only to discover that she’s carrying his baby. With her biological clock ticking however, this might not be quite the shock to Billie it would seem. Naturally, when Zack (who has decided to stick around and be a dad) lets this slip to James, things get awkward. Meanwhile Zack has been kicked out of his apartment and would have to sleep in his car – but luckily there’s room at Billie’s place. So Zack moves in; closely followed by his slacker mates.

So while Knocked Up was essentially the lead-up to the career woman and the slacker getting together, Accidentally on Purpose is about what happens after they do.

While the basic idea has a lot of promise, the problem with Accidentally on Purpose is that it’s caught up in that odd adult-oriented-sit-com genre that seems to have a deal of traction at the moment. You know, it’s the genre that includes the likes of How I Met Your Mother; Two and a Half Men and Gary Unmarried – and it suffers from the same basic flaws.

The emphasis on sexual relationships makes it unappealing for a “family” audience, but it probably doesn’t go far enough for adult audiences used to smarter fare like Sex and the City and Californication. It also makes that fatal error for a sit-com; it’s just not that funny. Admittedly, the canned laughter track is an immediate turn-off for me, but the show lacks the breezy charm and easy laughs of Dharma & Greg, with which it will inevitably be compared.

On the plus side, I’m a fan of Elfman and I think she does a great job as the more-vulnerable-than-she-seems Billie. She certainly hasn’t lost her comic timing or touch and she’s certainly the best thing about the show. However with a relatively inexperienced cast behind her, she has to basically carry the show single-handedly. Jon Foster is suitably handsome as Zack, but I find both his character and his acting rather bland. Grant Show (Melrose Place aluminst also on the way back) is better as James without exactly setting the screen on fire; while Ashley Jensen – the chatty Scottish woman from Ugly Betty – seems a little miscast as Billie’s party-girl best friend Olivia. Zack’s slacker mates provide some light relief; although I sometimes get the feeling they’ve just wandered in from the set of The Big Bang Theory and plonked themselves on the couch.

Accidentally on Purpose has left me a bit cold I have to say. My spies in the US tell me the series gets better as it goes on, and having only seen the early episodes, I have no reason to doubt that it does. The question will be whether Aussies will stick with it long enough for that to happen.

Phil James