PILOT REVIEW: The Village

THE VILLAGE

Starring: Morian Atias, Dominic Chianese, Warren Christie, Frankie Faison, Jerod Haynes, Daren Kagasoff, Michaela McManus, Lorraine Toussaint, Grace Van Dien

Created by Mike Daniels
Written by Mike Daniels, Directed by Minkie Spiro

IN SHORT: A Million Little Apartments

THE PREMISE:
The Village is another beneficiary of the success of This is Us as it very obviously strives to be a heart-tugging relationship drama. There are moments where it succeeds and moments where it fails, but we'll get to that. This is less about family or friends as it is about a group of people living in a Brooklyn apartment building. This includes Iranian refugee Ava (Morian Atias), nursing home employee Sarah (Michaela McManus) and her pregnant teenage daughter Katie (Grace Van Dien), wounded Army vet Nick (Warren Christie), and longtime couple Patricia and Ron (Lorraine Toussaint and Frankie Faison) among others.

THE REVIEW:
I remember first watching A Million Little Things in the fall and feeling pretty underwhelmed by it. It seemed like a very pale imitation of This is Us while simultaneously checking off every box a relationship drama can have. Yet somehow I found myself watching the entire season of A Million Little Things and still wondering if I even cared by the end. It's a lot harder for me to give up relationship dramas, even so-so ones, than it is crime dramas or medical dramas. I would put The Village at a starting level higher than Million, which probably means I'm going to be watching it for as long or short as it is on the air even if I sit here not sure if I really even liked it.

There are some good performances, to be sure. Lorraine Toussaint and Frankie Faison were enjoyable in parts that didn't seem quite as big as others in the pilot, but are very promising. I was less sold on the relationship between Michaela McManus and Grace Van Dien although they did have some nice moments together. The pilot didn't spend a ton of time building up the relationships between these characters and there's not a natural link like being family or close friends so I wonder how they will intertwine the stories a little more in weeks to come.

It wasn't as transparent as A Million Little Things, but the pilot of The Village still ticked off teen pregnancy, deportation, serious illness, death and paternity questions in the pilot. I don't know why these relationship dramas feel the need to explore so many issues right away. A lot of us are bound to deal with many serious issues in our lifetime, either personally or through a friend or family member, but can you look around at your friends and family and tick off as many boxes as an average group of family members or friends can in a TV pilot? Unlikely. I wish the show would spend more time developing characters without needing life-changing plots. Sometimes, the smaller stories and plots can be just as effective. But here I sit criticizing things when I know I'm going to watch the whole series.

BOTTOM LINE:
The Village is no This is Us, but I think it's off to a better start than A Million Little Things. If you watch one or both of those shows, that should give you an idea going on of what we're working with.