If you’re looking for a witty, well written and gripping drama, October Road isn’t it. Yet the ABC series about a successful author returning to his hometown is engaging in its own way. The show’s star, Bryan Greenberg (One Tree Hill, Prime) saves this series from being a retread of most other Successful Person Lands in Small Town shows (see Men in Trees, Northern Exposure, et al.) A likeable and sexy boy-next-door type, Greenberg steps up the game of everyone around him, which includes Laura Prepon (That 70’s Show) who comes from the Indicating School of Acting. Since most of the supporting cast (with the exception of Tom Berenger) is interchangeable, Greenberg had a lot of game up-ing to do.
The story is pretty thin: Ten years ago, Nick Garrett (Greenberg) bailed on his friends and girlfriend Hannah (Prepon) to move to New York City, where he wrote a novel making fun of the people in his small town. When he returns home to give a lecture at the local college, the townsfolk are understandably a little unhappy, especially Hannah, who has a ten year old son. Seeing his (probable) son, and being back home, makes Nick think that perhaps this town isn’t so bad after all. If this premise reminds you of the 1996 film Beautiful Girls, that’s because the series is created by that film’s writer Scott Rosenberg, along with Andre Nemec, and Josh Applebaum, (both from Alias.) But Greenberg still manages to make it seem as if we, er, he was living it for the first time. (Check out Brian Ford Sullivan's interview with the producers on The Futon Critic.com)
After a promising premiere last week, October Road dropped 16%, averaging a 4.9 rating (down from last week’s 5.8), and it lost a chunk of its viewers in its second half hour. That’s not a good sign, and yet it still is doing better than Men in Trees, the show it temporarily replaced. Neither show does as well as its lead in Grey’s Anatomy, which averages an 8.7 rating. Will October Road last? It’s not Must See TV, but it’s still a road worth driving.
