PILOT REVIEW: Charlie's Angels

CHARLIE'S ANGELS

Starring: Annie Ilonzeh, Minka Kelly, Rachael Taylor, and Ramon Rodriguez
Created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts
Written by Alfred Gough and Miles Marner, Directed by Marcos Siega

Charlie's Angels is the flashy new remake of the hit 1970s series and popular 2000s movies. Like so many remakes, it aims to be bigger and better. I never watched the original show and have never seen the movies so I don't have anything to compare it to, but my guess is that the flashiness is stronger but the heart and quality may be lacking. That seems to be the case with such remakes. It centers on two "angels" who are former bad girls (Annie Ilonzeh and Rachael Taylor) who work for the unseen Charlie Townsend to catch criminals. When their third angel is murdered, they team up with her childhood friend (Minka Kelly) who becomes a new angel. Also in the cast is tech guy Bosley (Ramon Rodriguez).

THE GOOD: Well it's not the next Emmy Award winner for Outstanding Drama Series, but it is fun. We'll get to the story and the dialogue in the next section but there are things to like. The angels is beautiful to look at and fun to watch in fight scenes. I'm a huge Minka Kelly fan from Friday Night Lights and she's the strongest of the three angels here. The show is beautifully produced as its setting in Miami really adds to the overall look of the show. The action scenes were high quality in the pilot, though we'll see if that can be sustained as a series. It's a fun show and that's about the best you can hope for with a show like this.

THE BAD: Despite the fun of this show, it is hard to get past some terrible writing and mediocre acting. Lines like "I never thought my heart could hurt this much" don't really belong on any show. I think I probably would have enjoyed the pilot more if I had kept it on mute. Rachael Taylor wasn't working for me in the pilot, I don't know if she had the worst lines or was the worst actress of the three angels. The high techy-ness from Bosley also gets a little tired in the pilot. I don't know why every movie and TV show in this genre have to overdo the computer skills of the characters. And of course, the plot holes in a very fast moving pilot were glaring.

BOTTOM LINE: The thing is, this show is everything I expected it to be. If you're looking for cohesive plots with good writing and acting, this is not the show for you. If you're looking for mindless fun and some pyrotechnics then you might enjoy it. This is a show that needs to be accepted for what it is and honestly, that's ok with me. We need a few campy action shows on TV.