There shouldn't be a show more perfect for me than "October Road." It's written by Scott Rosenberg, who also wrote one the screenplay for the music nerdfest High Fidelity as well as one of my all-time favorite movies, Beautiful Girls. It's based on Rosenberg's own experiences after writing Beautiful Girls, and it's even set in the movie's hometown of Knights Ridge.
So it was painful for me to pop in the first of four episodes I screened of "October Road," which premieres tonight after "Grey's Anatomy" on ABC, and find it nearly unwatchable. The pilot packs in every coming-home cliche ever written, awkward references to Sept. 11, a stereotypical college girl love interest, a freakishly well-spoken child who may or may not be the main character's son, and a bar fight. The weird thing was that I couldn't stop watching — but then, I had four episodes at my fingertips. If I'd been a regular viewer, I don't think I would have even finished off the pilot.
In the show's first scenes, set in 1997, Nick Garrett (Byan Greenberg of "One Tree Hill") leaves his hometown girlfriend and high school buddies behind for a six-week trip to Europe. He returns 10 years later as the author of the bestselling book Turtle on a Snare Drum (seriously), a thinly veiled autobiographical novel that savaged many of his former friends. Let's get this straight: Rosenberg wrote Beautiful Girls based on his hometown, and people got angry, so he wrote a TV show about their reactions? They're really gonna love him now. It gets worse, so read more
