Eastwick, ABC’s female-driven drama, premiered last night in the rough 10 o’clock spot. Based on John Updike’s book, Witches of Eastwick, this new series is about three women who are looking for something more in there lives. We open to the idyllic town of Eastwick, a state fair is playing out and Roxie (Rebecca Romjin), Kat(Jamie Ray Newman), and Joanna (Lindsay Price) happen upon three half dollar coins. Taking these coins to the town wishing well (what town doesn’t have this?) they make their respective wishes. Soon after they forge a fast friendship and discover magical talents they never knew they had. Because of these wishes, and before they come upon their talents, a mysterious man arrives in town and starts buying up the town and entering the lives of these three women.
Roxie: Labeled the “town slut,” Roxie does what and who she wants. She’s a wild child who has tried many careers and has finally landed on being a sculptress. A proprietor of her own art studio, she struggles to make ends meet, but doesn’t seem to believe that this will last for long. She has a daughter, Mia, who she treats more as a friend, telling her to rebel and teasing her when she gets her first hickey. This backfires, when Mia almost gets raped at the end of the show. Roxie’s love life is something of legend in the town of Eastwick. Her husband has died and everyone seems to believe that she killed him. For right now, she seems mildly content bedding a man half her age. Her wish: To meet someone who really gets her, who comes to town all mysterious and dangerous, buys all her artwork and makes passionate love to her on Egyptian cotton sheets. That’s a wish I can get behind. Her powers:premonition.
Kat: Kat is a wife and mother of five. She has been with her husband since she was eighteen (the first time she got pregnant) and lives a life that no one would envy. Her husband is the basic cliché lazy good–for-nothing man who you really want to see get a good kick in the pants or maybe something much worse. I thought she was the only character that really showed any depth, someone I really wanted to root for. Her wish: for something to change. Her power: she has the power of Mother Nature. Examples, she literally makes the earth move and unwittingly makes a bolt of lightning strike her dead beat husband in the chest.
Joanna: Joanna is a self-proclaimed pushover. She can’t summon the courage to pitch a huge story to her boss and says wildly inappropriate things to her office crush, Will (telling him about her vibrator was extremely hard to watch, but funny). Her wish: to be able to speak up and get what she wants. Her power: Hypnosis. She can look at a man (it only works on men) and make him do whatever she wants. Perfect for someone who can’t seem to get anything she wants.
This series is struggling to find a balance between light and dark. The light comedy part they have down, it’s the dark, evil part that’s a real problem. They have a ten o’clock spot, which means they can say and do things that series in the eight or nine o’clock series can’t. What I want to see is more depth in the characters and their backgrounds. The mysterious stranger, Daryl, is the one that is orchestrating these ladies interest in their new powers, but I can’t take him seriously with that voice of his. He sounds like the movie trailer guy, and somehow I can’t enjoy the evilness he’s supposed to be embodying with that voice.
The series premiere got a respectable 9.3 million viewers last night and was second in the coveted 18-49 demographic. I predict this number will go down next week. It’s just not that strong of a show.
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