Pilot vs. Pilot

Dirty Sexy Money is one of my favorite new shows, but I kept hearing about the original pilot, which features a long lost daughter with a major vendetta against the Darlings. That storyline, I was told, was the best thing about the pilot. So how could ABC have lost it and still maintained a show that I think is pretty freaking fantastic? I was curious and this weekend my friend Q was kind enough to lend me the original. Maybe it's because I saw the new version first and know where its mysteries lead, but I wasn't that taken with the original pilot. Nick is shifty, Juliet is a punchline and Tish is a borderline sociopath. Below are two versions of the same scene to give you an idea.

Original Pilot:

Aired Pilot:

See? I don't think I could have endured an entire season of that first family. They're so hard and... dead inside. Meanwhile, Darlings 2.0 are more buoyant and lifelike. In the current incarnation, I love Tish. Watching her quietly mourn the love of her life under her husband's nose is heartbreaking. The same emotions in the original pilot seem to signal that she's off her meds. And it's those meds that probably keep her from beating her family to death. Seriously, Tish 1.0 haaaates Juliet.

As far as the long lost daughter goes, I'm glad she was replaced by the mysterious Simon Elder as the president of the He Man Tripp Darling Haters Club. Getting dumped in Syberia and watching your parents die is a way better reason to want revenge than getting dropped off on the steps of an orphanage with a priceless bauble from your teenage mother.

In light of the strike and ongoing tension between writers and the networks and studios that employ them, I think the evolution of Dirty Sexy Money is a great example of what happens when those two entities work well together. Craig Wright created a wonderful show with bright, engaging characters, but I'm guessing network notes led to the stronger, better version. So lets all hope for a Christmas miracle in which everyone at the negotiating table takes a cue from Tish 2.0, softening the edges and cutting the vitriolic hatred by half.

Why do I watch crap?

It takes a lot for me to completely give up on a TV show. And even once I declare it dead and buried, it doesn't take much more than a little stunt casting or the promise of a particularly loathed character's death (see: Hill, One Tree) to resurrect my interest. I can justify certain shows because I've been watching them for years. Degrassi's a perfect example. It was never a conventional masterpiece (though it has more than earned its place in the pantheon of pop culture) so when I start having to slog through episodes of Emma and Sean blah blah blahing when I'd rather focus on something that doesn't make me wish Spike had just gone for the abortion, I can hang tough. I know that before long Manny or Craig will show up and do something explosively stupid/entertaining and all will be right with the world.

What's mysterious (even to me) is my stubborn ability to hang on to subpar shows from the get-go. What goes on with October Road? What goes on is that people have stupid syntax that makes me want to shake the writers by the lapels and beg them to give just one of the characters a voice that's not so reminiscent of the know-it-all douche I dated freshman year. Jeez! So why do I keep watching? I don't know! To be fair, I usually watch it on the computer while doing other things, but I still freaking tune in, eager to see what new complication will befall Nick and his gang of quasi-intellectual townies.

So if October Road and Kaya (which has crashed and burned in an inferno of missed dramatic opportunities and mediocrity) are still on my viewing schedule, what is it that makes me abandon shows like Gilmore Girls and The OC? Maybe it's the fact that watching a once great show's paler imitation of itself is infinitely more frustrating than laughing at the missteps and savoring the occasional victories of shows that have never shown as perfectly. It's all about expectations. And with the return of One Tree Hill nigh, I'm giddy with the prospect of our characters four years in the future (looks like Nathan's a drunk with long hair!). My expectations have never been lower.