TV Review: Once and Again - Season One
Once and Again - Season One
Starring: Sela Ward, Billy Campbell, Jeffrey Nordling, Susanna Thompson, Shane West, Julia Whelan, Evan Rachel Wood, Meredith Deane, Marin Hinkle
Series Creators: Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick
We got this set two years ago and loved it. I watched the series as it aired (albeit off and on in the later seasons because it was always being shifted around by the network) and was happy to see that it was as brilliant as I remembered it being. It was one of the first TV box sets we had ever gotten, and we quickly watched our way through the 22 episodes. Then, we waited for season two to get released. It had already been awhile since season one was released before we got it. So, we waited. And waited. And then waited some more. And... nothing. Eventually, years had past since the set's initial release, and we just gave up on another season. Which was incredibly frustrating. Then, miraculously, when all hope was lost, they announced that season two (along with a re-issued season one) would be released August 23. Huzzah!!!
But, since it'd been years since we'd last watched the first season, we figured it was time to re-watch it to gear up for the second season. The basic premise of the show is that it follows two forty-something parents of two who meet and fall in love following their previous marriages. They were in love once, and now they are again, get it?
The forty-somethings in question are Lily Manning (Sela Ward), a recently-separated-from-her-cheating-husband mother of two daughters, Grace and Zoe, and Rick Sammler (Billy Campbell), a divorced dad of a teenage son named Eli and an adolescent daughter named Jessie. The series centres on Ward and Campbell, their lives and their budding romance, and thus the success of the show falls on their shoulders. And they shoulder the burden with grace and ease. Campbell's Rick Sammler is a ruggedly handsome, intelligent man's man who is also a sensitive boyfriend and father. Since the show is a drama based on relationships, it's obvious key demographic is women, and Rick gives them plenty of reasons to watch, while presenting male viewers with a character with whom they can easily identify. Ward's Lily Manning is a concerned, caring mother battling issues with her ex-husband while trying to handle being the head of the household. She also might be the sexiest 41 year old mother to ever be featured on primetime television. Ward is incredibly gorgeous, and while older ladies aren't really my thing, I gotta say that she ain't hard on the eyes. Not that Ward plays Lily as a sexpot, because that would fail the single mother character. Instead, she's neurotic, constantly worries about her children who both think she's a dork, as all children think their parents are.
While Rick and Lily and their budding relationship is the centrepiece of the show, making it a grown-up dramatic version of The Brady Bunch, they are by no means the sole focus of the show. Creators Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick did a fantastic job casting the ensemble, and give each characters spotlights with which to shine. Jeffrey Nordling manages to make Lily's not-quite-ex-husband Jake Manning a somewhat sympathetic figure, despite his narcissism and philandering that ended their marriage. Rick's ex-wife, Karen Sammler (Susanna Thompson), is also presented in a sympathetic light, who still has issues with her ex-husband and worries a bit too much about their children (or, about as much as most good mothers do).
What's particularly impressive about this cast are the children of the main characters. Not only are they all excellent child actors, but they were all actually child actors. There were no 30 year old teenagers on this show (at least not with the main cast). Also, the children all looked like they could be the children of the adult actors. Shane West (in his pre-ER and A Walk To Remember days) looks like the teenage son of Billy Campbell, as Evan Rachel Wood (pre-Thirteen) looks like a young Susanna Thompson. The same applies to Lily and Jake's children Grace (Julia Whelan) and Zoe (Meredith Deane) who not only look like their parents, but also look like sisters. Filling out the cast is Lily's younger sister Judy Brooks (Marin Hinkle), who also looks like she could be sisters with Ward, and recurring characters David Cassilli (Todd Field), Rick's business partner, Tiffany Porter (Ever Carradine), Jake's girlfriend, Sam Blue (Steven Weber), Rick's old friend and Judy's boyfriend, Naomi (Kelly Coffield), who is friends with both Lily and Karen, Jennifer (Kimberly McCullough), Eli's girlfriend, and the irrepressible Miles Drentell (David Clennon), who goes into business with Rick and David.
What made this show so good, so good that a guy's guy like me could get so involved with a relationship-based family drama, is the extreme focus on character development. Each character is presented as a three-dimensional person with strengths and flaws. No one is perfect, nor are there any pure villains in the show (well, in the main cast anyway, Miles Drentell is purposefully unusual, and the closest thing the series has to a villain). There's nothing in this season that doesn't ring true, achingly true at times. The parents act like parents, new lovers act like new lovers, and the kids act like kids. It's like watching real life, but with more interesting conflicts, better looking people, and better written dialogue. To more fully delve into the characters, the show relies on fourth-wall breaking monologue segments with the characters, who speak to the audience in black and white confessionals that feel more like their inner dialogues than actual discussions with the camera. It's very similar to asides in theatre, and more effective than I'm probably making it sound here.
The show is highly emotional, which leads to its addictive nature. The themes of love and family, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, sisters, love and loss, and new relationships are universal, providing all viewers with stories and feelings to latch on too. It's smart television, appealing to the mind as well as the heart. It intends to put the viewer through the emotional wringer, to make them laugh and cry, smile and swoon, and it does so with almost every episode. It only lasted three seasons, victim to scheduling shifts and impatient networks, and is a significant entry in the "too good for television" category. I highly recommend the series to those who appreciate family dramas, but wish they had more intelligent offerings.
5/5
Related:
The O.C. - Season Two
Once and Again - Season Two
Sports Night: The Complete Series