Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts
By Alyce Wilson
Feb. 25, 2003: My Big Fat Review
Nia
Vardalos, perhaps after seeing her show's first episode
I finally got around to watching "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," because I hit on the brilliant plan of watching it during the week when nobody else would have the videotape out.
As coincidence would have it, the first episode of "My Big Fat Greek Life" aired on Fox last night. While the movie was as good as I'd heard, the series is a big, fat mistake.
The movie was everything that everybody said it was: funny, intelligent and sweet. It was an affectionate look at the loud Greek family of Nia Vardalos, who wrote, directed and starred in the film. But in the series, that kind of sensitive portrayal is replaced with two-dimensional sitcom standbys, most likely because Vardalos has been replaced by a team of writers.
The
husband, Ian Miller -- whose name is mysteriously changed to Thomas in
the series -- has transformed into a whiny character (played by Steven
Eckholdt), rather than the charming Ian, protrayed by John Corbett in
the movie.
In the opening scene, he argues with Nia's father about something petty, which is something the character in the movie would never have done.
The official word on the street is that Corbett turned down the series because he had other projects going. I'm beginning to wonder if it was because he'd read the script. After being involved in the movie, which was justifiably praised for its script as well as for its acting, I can't imagine he'd want to lower himself to standard sitcom fare.
The whole first episode concentrates on the hesitation of Nia (name changed from Toula in the movie, perhaps to give Vardalos greater name recognition) and Thomas to accept a house as a wedding present from her father. Of course, this gift took place at the end of the movie and was never an issue, but was seen as a very generous, if eccentric, gift.
Now I'm not saying that the series should never engage in any revisionism of the movie's world, but it seems a danger sign when the revisionism starts with the very first episode.
Nia's brother, Nicky, played by Louis Mandylour, was a tough guy masking a sensitive side in the movie, supportive of his sister, an artist who happened to work in his father's Greek restaurant. The series turns him into a caricature, a protective yet dimwitted older brother who, for no good reason, seems to have it in for Thomas.
The father certainly has developed a dislike for Thomas, probably because unlike in the movie, he's now whiny and difficult. It looks as though the writers have decided to use the old "opposites who dislike each other but are stuck together" premise, which allows for the insult battles so standard on today's sitcoms.
While veteran sitcom actresses Andrea Martin and Laine Kazan, along with newcomer Vardalos, get plenty of laughs, they can't rescue the show.
The problem is, the writers are forgetting why viewers loved the movie. They loved it because, while it was sometimes ridiculous, it stopped short of caricature. The characters had their differences, but they didn't engage in verbal insult battles. They actually cared about the things they were saying, and about each other.
Because of the writing, these actors, who were so complex and sympathetic in the movie, become comedians, setting up punchline after punchline. The show even ends with one of those frank talk sessions between Nia and her father, where she insists on "no more interfering" and they conclude with a hug.
None of this would have happened in the movie. In the movie, the father was too set in his ways to accept an outright demand like that. Nia and her mother would have had to convince him by tricking him into thinking it was his own idea. And the result, I believe, would have been funnier.
"My Big Fat Greek Life" can't rely on standard sitcom punchlines and caricatures if it wants to retain its viewership. It has to recapture the qualities people loved in the movie. It has to step back from the caricatures and get more real, walking the same delicate balance that the movie did.
Moral:
Don't mess with something that works.
Copyright 2003 by Alyce Wilson
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