Written as part of the weekly blogathon hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. Join in the fun by picking three movies (or TV shows, as the case may be) that fit the week's theme and writing a bit about them.
One of the most frustrating things about TV shows is that you never know how long they're going to last. You can put hours of time into watching them and get attached to the characters only to be rewarded by the show getting cancelled at the end of its first season - if it even makes it that far! And this week on Thursday Movie Picks: TV EDITION, that's what we're talking about - those weird, wonderful shows that not enough people loved as much as we did to stick around longer than one season.
So NoTORIous (2006) Yes, Tori Spelling had a sitcom. Yes, it aired on VH1 for one season. And YES, it is HILARIOUS. It's a funhouse mirror version of Tori's own life, complete with dad Aaron Spelling appearing as a disembodied voice a la Charlie's Angels and, in the most brilliant stroke of casting, Loni Anderson as her mother. The series is "about" how Tori wants to be taken seriously and for people to like her for her (as opposed to her daddy's money), as well as how her upbringing at the hands of her self-absorbed mother has affected her. Co-starring Cleo King as Tori's beloved nanny and Zachary Quinto as her gay best friend Sasan, So NoTORIous is far better than you would ever imagine it being - constantly surprising and occasionally even surreally bizarre.
Ben and Kate (2012) Kate (Dakota Johnson) is a hard-working, practical single mom. Her brother Ben (Nat Faxon) is a free-spirited professional underachiever. When Ben comes back to town after a long stint away, the two realize that they each might be just what the other needs in order to be their best selves. Heart-warming and humorous, I am at a real loss as to why this show wasn't a bigger hit than it was. Faxon and Johnson have great familial chemistry, Kate's kid is ADORABLE and an utterly unprecious actress, and the supporting cast is full of ringers, none better than Lucy Punch as Kate's best friend BJ, who more than deserved some awards recognition for her absurd, hysterical performance.
No Tomorrow (2016) What if you met the perfect guy, and he turned out to be a doomsday prophet? That's the dilemma facing Evie, a fussy middle manager at a supply warehouse, in the hunky, British-accented form of Xavier, the free-spirited and otherwise pretty normal guy she meets at the farmers' market. Xavier has science to back up his apocalypse theory, and he also has an "apoca-list" of all the things he wants to do in the eight months before the world ends. Evie falls for him (and honestly, who WOULDN'T fall for Joshua Sasse?), and gets caught up in his world, making her own list and crossing off items with Xavier. Romantic comedy is tough to get right on TV (you can only believably keep the central couple apart for so long, and most rom-coms end when they get together), but No Tomorrow does a damn good job of it, in part because Tori Anderson and Joshua Sasse have incredible chemistry, and in part because as the series goes on, both are revealed to be far weirder and more interesting as people than they seem at first glance. It also helps that the supporting cast, while in many ways stock characters, get fun storylines and actors that make them feel like genuine individuals. And honestly, the ticking clock of the apocalypse helps too - the focus of the series isn't a "will-they-won't-they-OF-COURSE-THEY-WILL", but rather a "how do these two people affect each other, for better and/or worse," which is much more interesting.
