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PILOT REVIEW: Love Bites

LOVE BITES










Starring: Becki Newton, Greg Grunberg
Created by Cindy Chupack
Written by Cindy Chupack, Directed by Marc Buckland

Love Bites is a quirky new comedy anthology from NBC that was originally slated to be on the fall schedule last September. However, numerous backstage problems led it to become a summer burnoff for the peacock network which is too bad because there is some promise here. In many ways a 2011 version of Love American Style, Bites follows characters through a series of vignettes that are loosely connected by a theme. The pilot focused on three stores - a girl pretending to be a virgin to make a guy interested, a man losing his job and having trouble in his sex life with his wife, and a married man whose fantasy of being with Jennifer Love Hewitt almost comes true on a plane.

There are strong adult themes in this show but its layered in a very light escapist tone. The show is an interesting mix of nostalgia and hipness. The show is not groundbreaking but it is unlike anything on TV right now with its very simple stand-alone stories. The cast is strong - regulars Becki Newton and Greg Grunberg were interesting and solid while there was a strong guest cast including Jennifer Love Hewitt as herself in a bizarre storyline. The show is nicely produced and all three stories were strong in the pilot even if there wasn't much substance to them.

The show is pretty much doomed by being a summer burnoff and that was confirmed by weak pilot ratings. But why didn't NBC try this show during the season? It's not like they were full of hits and had no room for it. It may not have worked but it was worth a shot. As it is, there is a likable breezy summer show that will be nice to have if you're interesting in watching first run scripted programming on the broadcast networks. This show had some bad luck along the way and it's too bad it never really got a chance.
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