"The Ex List" pilot episode
I've finally managed to get my hands on The Mythological Ex, an Israeli TV show that ran for 11 episodes in 2007. The show was a romantic comedy about a single woman who goes to a psychic and discovers that a) if she doesn't marry by the end of the year she will stay single forever, and b) she's already met and broken up with the love of her life. The show follows her as she reconnects with various exes and eventually finds her One True Love.
CBS bought the show for adaptation, and the pilot of The Ex List, starring Elizabeth Reaser (Eva/Rebbeca from Grey's Anatomy, aired this past Friday.
To be frank, I probably wouldn't have continued watching this show if not for the adaptation angle. It's kind of cute, but there are better shows out there, and I kind of like the Israeli because of the cast and references, so The Ex List doesn't hold that much suspense.
However, I do love noting the differences (and even more, similarities) in adaptations. So here's a short picspam/review of moments in the first episode, starting with:
The inflatable pool! On the left above is our first meeting with Michal Lotan/Bella Bloom's three best friends, in an inflatable pool in the backyard, including her best friend (left), his girlfriend, and another friend. This is the scene where she tells them about what the fortuneteller told her.
In general, the basic differences are exactly what you might expect from an American adaptation of a romantic comedy: prettier, flashier, richer, and with more of everything. The pace is quicker, the dialogues fast-paced, the clothes more fashionable, the hair and make-up touched up and perfect. The sets are richer, and there are more locations filmed to begin with - including, for example, the flower shop where Bella works.
There are also more characters - The Ex List introduces Bella's sister and father as supporting characters. And episodes are longer - the usual 42 minutes instead of the Israeli 35.
All right, basic differences over and done with, let's continue with the pics:
This is a flashback to the heroine's break up from the first ex we meet: Yonatan "Johnny D" Deamont/Johnny Deamont. The two Johnnys had the same characterization in both shows, the only difference being that she broke up with the Israeli Johnny when he was a whiny, emo soldier, and with the American when he was a whiny, emo civilian.
(Also, while this guy was the first ex on Bella's list, he was actually the second on Michal's, and this is the plot appears in the second episode of the Israeli version. The first Israeli ex was a guy who was too attached to his mother.)
Michal/Bella decides to go to a show of Johnny's, who is now, a few years after the break-up, playing with his band somewhere. As she waits, her Sky/Vivian asks for her opinion on her new... design:
Accompanying dialogue from the Israeli version:
"What do you think?" asks Sky. Michal answers, dismayed, "Man, why?" "I don't know, I just felt like a change. I usually have a 'Hitler'. I just felt like going... 'Gandhi'." "You know, because of women like you, later we have to do it too," Michal complains. "Who's 'we'?" "The ones who like 'Hertzel'."
The American dialogue is similar except longer, wittier, and exchanges Hertzel for Lincoln.
So Michal/Bella goes to the show, hears a new-and-improved tough-guy Johnny perform a popular song about the bitch who dumped him on his birthday, and feels appropriately ashamed. After the show's over the place clears out and she's left sitting at the bar, when Johnny spots her, sexily strides towards her in slow motion and kisses her:
And walks away.
Blah blah happens, here's where the shows differ a little bit, but they meet again and decide to meet up later.
Later, (or earlier? whatever), we meet Michal/Bella's most recent and also most serious ex.
And they have a joint dog. And also, Bella's ex is very tall and athletic and can walk. Michal's can't.
Here is where Michal and Bella's friends see and are grossed out by the ugly new mole on her back! Yay. Three cheers for romantic comedy moments of wtf.
However, the mole does have a plot purpose. Michal/Bella and Johnny get together, sleep together, and only then does she discover hat he's as actually just whiny and emo as he used to be, and she needs to break up with him pronto. She pretends to be unbearably needy and annoying with the hopes to push him away.
Finally, when they're in the bathtub, she decides to show him the mole. Again, the shows differ here a bit: Michal's Johnny thinks the mole is sexy, so she resorts to telling him she's pregnant and doesn't want to have an abortion, to which he responds with a happy fairy tale futurustic dream for both of them. Bella's Johnny is kind of grossed out by the mole but is very sweet about it, and his reaction makes her honestly start falling for him.
The bitter end is the same for both girls: at Johnny's next concert, he asks them to raise a hand so everyone'll see them, then dedicates a song to them, dumping them maliciously in fron of the entire audience. Ah, sweet revenge. In the American version all of Bella's friends are also in the crowd, so the humiliation's more complete. The episode ends with her randomly finding a lost cat on the street, which turns out to belong to another ex of hers, who we'll get to meet next episode.
I have no real conclusion to this. It's really interesting for me to note the difference between the two versions, both production and narrative-wise, but neither show is a masterpiece in itself. I hope the CBS version succeeds enough to get a second season, because that'll help the local industry get more credibility and, you know, eventual money.
Meanwhile, sabrina_il has gotten me hooked on HBO's Generation Kill, and if you have not seen that show, why not? Brilliance. I should find a "Why You Should Watch Generation Kill" essay and link to it, because I suck at writing good recs. I know the book's also supposed to be great and has been recced all over, but whether you've read it or not, the miniseries is really, really, really, really good. And this is probably not the last time I will be talking about it.
CBS bought the show for adaptation, and the pilot of The Ex List, starring Elizabeth Reaser (Eva/Rebbeca from Grey's Anatomy, aired this past Friday.
To be frank, I probably wouldn't have continued watching this show if not for the adaptation angle. It's kind of cute, but there are better shows out there, and I kind of like the Israeli because of the cast and references, so The Ex List doesn't hold that much suspense.
However, I do love noting the differences (and even more, similarities) in adaptations. So here's a short picspam/review of moments in the first episode, starting with:
The inflatable pool! On the left above is our first meeting with Michal Lotan/Bella Bloom's three best friends, in an inflatable pool in the backyard, including her best friend (left), his girlfriend, and another friend. This is the scene where she tells them about what the fortuneteller told her.
In general, the basic differences are exactly what you might expect from an American adaptation of a romantic comedy: prettier, flashier, richer, and with more of everything. The pace is quicker, the dialogues fast-paced, the clothes more fashionable, the hair and make-up touched up and perfect. The sets are richer, and there are more locations filmed to begin with - including, for example, the flower shop where Bella works.
There are also more characters - The Ex List introduces Bella's sister and father as supporting characters. And episodes are longer - the usual 42 minutes instead of the Israeli 35.
All right, basic differences over and done with, let's continue with the pics:
This is a flashback to the heroine's break up from the first ex we meet: Yonatan "Johnny D" Deamont/Johnny Deamont. The two Johnnys had the same characterization in both shows, the only difference being that she broke up with the Israeli Johnny when he was a whiny, emo soldier, and with the American when he was a whiny, emo civilian.
(Also, while this guy was the first ex on Bella's list, he was actually the second on Michal's, and this is the plot appears in the second episode of the Israeli version. The first Israeli ex was a guy who was too attached to his mother.)
Michal/Bella decides to go to a show of Johnny's, who is now, a few years after the break-up, playing with his band somewhere. As she waits, her Sky/Vivian asks for her opinion on her new... design:
Accompanying dialogue from the Israeli version:
"What do you think?" asks Sky. Michal answers, dismayed, "Man, why?" "I don't know, I just felt like a change. I usually have a 'Hitler'. I just felt like going... 'Gandhi'." "You know, because of women like you, later we have to do it too," Michal complains. "Who's 'we'?" "The ones who like 'Hertzel'."
The American dialogue is similar except longer, wittier, and exchanges Hertzel for Lincoln.
So Michal/Bella goes to the show, hears a new-and-improved tough-guy Johnny perform a popular song about the bitch who dumped him on his birthday, and feels appropriately ashamed. After the show's over the place clears out and she's left sitting at the bar, when Johnny spots her, sexily strides towards her in slow motion and kisses her:
And walks away.
Blah blah happens, here's where the shows differ a little bit, but they meet again and decide to meet up later.
Later, (or earlier? whatever), we meet Michal/Bella's most recent and also most serious ex.
And they have a joint dog. And also, Bella's ex is very tall and athletic and can walk. Michal's can't.
Here is where Michal and Bella's friends see and are grossed out by the ugly new mole on her back! Yay. Three cheers for romantic comedy moments of wtf.
However, the mole does have a plot purpose. Michal/Bella and Johnny get together, sleep together, and only then does she discover hat he's as actually just whiny and emo as he used to be, and she needs to break up with him pronto. She pretends to be unbearably needy and annoying with the hopes to push him away.
Finally, when they're in the bathtub, she decides to show him the mole. Again, the shows differ here a bit: Michal's Johnny thinks the mole is sexy, so she resorts to telling him she's pregnant and doesn't want to have an abortion, to which he responds with a happy fairy tale futurustic dream for both of them. Bella's Johnny is kind of grossed out by the mole but is very sweet about it, and his reaction makes her honestly start falling for him.
The bitter end is the same for both girls: at Johnny's next concert, he asks them to raise a hand so everyone'll see them, then dedicates a song to them, dumping them maliciously in fron of the entire audience. Ah, sweet revenge. In the American version all of Bella's friends are also in the crowd, so the humiliation's more complete. The episode ends with her randomly finding a lost cat on the street, which turns out to belong to another ex of hers, who we'll get to meet next episode.
I have no real conclusion to this. It's really interesting for me to note the difference between the two versions, both production and narrative-wise, but neither show is a masterpiece in itself. I hope the CBS version succeeds enough to get a second season, because that'll help the local industry get more credibility and, you know, eventual money.
Meanwhile, sabrina_il has gotten me hooked on HBO's Generation Kill, and if you have not seen that show, why not? Brilliance. I should find a "Why You Should Watch Generation Kill" essay and link to it, because I suck at writing good recs. I know the book's also supposed to be great and has been recced all over, but whether you've read it or not, the miniseries is really, really, really, really good. And this is probably not the last time I will be talking about it.