Post by No Personality on Dec 26, 2009 15:21:30 GMT -5
So... You could say that I like Tori Spelling. No, I'm not going to tell any long stories or come up with a list of defenses for her. There may be some Tori Spelling apologists out there. I assume those are people who have liked her since her Beverly Hills 90210 days and to some extent have followed her pretty pathetic dramatic tv work, Lifetime movies and the like, after (and before) that meal ticket ended for her. I was just watching Vh1 one day (probably during one of their marathons for the shameless and shockingly entertaining Flavor of Love celebrity dating reality show) and came across the tv spot for this new scripted mock-reality (though not in Drop Dead Gorgeous mockumentary style) sitcom, not quite knowing what to expect yet somehow fascinated by the prospect of a "comeback" type project for Tori... who I didn't even know had faded. The last I'd heard of her, she had done Scream 2 and Scary Movie 2 (the latter is completely ignored in the season's dialogue but you know the former had to be slipped in there somewhere! ;D). And after catching the first two episodes (shown back-to-back), I was hooked!
If you have to, call it a guilty pleasure. The show debuted in 2006 and, 3 years later, I'm still watching it. Only 10 episodes. I'm not saying it's great. But it's actually one of the most likable sitcoms I'd seen in years. Since at the time, the market (target audience including the one this show was aimed at) was flooded mainly with reality shows (survival competitions and Paris Hilton's The Simple Life was huge) and tv dramas like Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives. Sex in the City was pretty much over, Will & Grace was on its' last leg, and I do believe Friends was dead. The road to NoTorious had been paved with other mock-celebreality failures like Kirstie Alley's Fat Actress and Lisa Kudrow's The Comeback. Fittingly, among Tori's show and those other "has beens" trying to expose the darker side of the same industry that made them famous, the only mainstream nobody of the bunch, Kathy Griffin, managed to have the lone hit with- My Life on the D List. Maybe that's the show whose praises I should be singing. But I relate a lot less to the diva (that's not to say that I don't find Kathy to be hilarious- I do!) and instead a lot more to the quiet girl who has everything handed to her (not...exactly, as this show kids about frequently) yet is made ill by the thought of confrontations with people who are in one way or another taking advantage of her.
That's truly the key to this series' success in terms of having good ideas and me finding the show entertaining. It does have a good story and honestly funny ideas. It's not actually about Tori's real life, it merely peppers a clever series of comic scenes strung together with little incidents from Tori's real life.
Episode Plot:
We first meet Tori as she eats with friends at restaurants and we see her on a series of bad dates. This sets up the subplot in other episodes about how everyone seems to want something from her (including her "GBFF," Sasan- Heroes' Zachary Quinto). After taking a trio of losers (separately, of course) to Benito's Taco Shop, she meets a tall beefy long-haired beaut working as a gaffer on the set of her latest "F" made-for-tv movie. She introduces herself and then not only falls a bit for him, but fixates on him as something she needs to make her life more normal. She throws him a 'get to know Tori' party, which she intends to be a small and intimate gathering, and is horrified when her friends invite their friends- which soon leads to small-scale chaos. She loses her cool and has a shouting match with Sasan's sweet as pie on the outside, gargoyle on the inside mother... which she fears has now caused her to blow her chance with Scott the gaffer.
Along the way, we meet her family and friends:
The "spartan and severe" (as the writer-creators put it on the audio commentary track) Janey (Brennan Hesser)
Sasan
Her childhood Nanny, Nanny (Cleo King- Deadwood and Boston Public)
Her bizarre mother, Kiki (legendary Hollywood blonde Loni Anderson- WKRP in Cincinnati)
Her best guy-friend and mooching horndog roommate, Pete (hunky James Carpinello- The Punisher and The Closer)
Her adorable little pug dog, Mimi La Rue
Her manager, Ruthie Rose (Goldie Hawn lookalike, Jeannetta Arnette- Head of the Class)
Her maid / cleaning woman, Vilma (Joanna Sanchez)
Sasan's prissy, picky parents (Natalia Nogulich and Brian George- Ghost World and Seinfeld)
First love interest of the series, Scott
and Tori's inner-child, who pops up every time she flashes back to memories of her insane childhood
The episode's title pretty much refers to how Tori handles the obstacles in her life. She is incredibly mousy but with a little coaching from Nanny, she is able to find a will to not give up on dating (which is a nightmare, trust me). Over the course of the episode, she picks her moments to lash out at others- a product of keeping quiet about most things that bother her. After awhile, you get the feeling that her problems mostly lie with her mother. Though we have to imagine that Kiki is right when she says the capelet wasn't that important or worth getting upset about, Tori's relationship with Kiki is distant. That seems to be mostly Kiki's fault. She's playing a fairly cliched version of the mother character with the one pay-off here being when, through her fancy and high-voiced haze, she slips in a dig at Tori about not caring enough about her to invite her to meet potential boyfriend Scott.
Tori's creepy-doll collection
As for her dating worries, the way she eventually gets over those is by dating very seldomly. This leads to one of my favorite scenes in the series, when Tori makes a jokey reference to My Best Friend's Wedding. I actually think there's the slightest chance Tori and Pete could make something work. If she could finally view him for the fine dating prospect he is and not just a "gross little brother." Throughout the series, you learn Pete's character is a lot more than just a dumb frat-type guy. Other than the fact that he aims to become a doctor / specialist, the final episode shows a really low-maintenance side to him. And not by accident either- he becomes the voice of humble-ness in her group of friends. Which again, proves him to be a great prospect for dating her. Her 'character,' that is. But by episode 6, new guys are out of the picture entirely (for not just Tori, but Sasan as well).
Tori's devotion to her dog shows more than her nurturing side
"Plucky" intends to make Tori look like the regular girl she claimed to be in her singing tv spot while using light comic barbs along the way to prove that she's anything but. Refreshingly, she's not a prima donna in this episode. And tries to use her personality to impress her friends and dates, instead of her money or her father's reputation. She knows she comes from a rich family but she's determined to prove she can do good all by herself. Nanny gets in a classic final line (not of the episode, but of her character), as she gets up to leave the Spelling mansion kitchen: "there's not a single thing you need from here." What is really refreshing about So NoTorious is that they do have a good story that doesn't need to show you the real Aaron Spelling or get sappy or whiny. The humor is a lot lighter than the show's influences (Absolutely Fabulous and, perhaps, Cybill) but still nice to see a channel that got as dumb as Vh1 had gotten at the time value trying something different than the usual sitcom formula.
Tori's smoking hot date, a guy who aspires to be a "hot bike mechanic" ... I'll go get a pair of tight blue jeans from my closet and we'll play
Tori's cool owl necklace
A strange woman who Tori accidentally socializes with as Tori walks down the street