Reviewing Movies

There’s something poignant about watching a TV Series on DVD that failed to make it on air. This one lasted for two seasons before failing to get renewed. Poignant is an appropriate word to describe a storyline about a group of thirty something childhood friends who refuse to grow up, make commitments, or set goals and take on responsibilities.

It is said that a author should write what he knows but Nick Garrett ran off to New York for ten years to write a book based on the people he grew up with in a small New England Town. Going home it is also said is impossible. Returning after 10 years to the girl you left behind you and people who recognized themselves in print is quite another matter. One should not be surprised if people have moved on even if you haven’t.

Men are from Mars and Woman are from Venus. Men are little boys with hairy chests; women are a mystery. If the scenario sounds somewhat like the movie Beautiful Girls the co-creator wrote that script and created this series in part based on his home town’s reaction to its depiction in that movie. Sully’s Bar echoes the spiritual home of gang in the movie and there are many of the same characters right down to a Rosie O'Donnell look-a-like and a landscaper who gets the s--t kicked out of him. Nick the writer subs for Timothy Hutton the piano bar player.

As season two winds down the gang are confronted with the death of a classmate the shock serving to force the ‘boys’ to grow up. Since the series ended with many plot-lines including the long-running mystery as to who fathered Hannah Daniels son Sam left unanswered a 10-minute epilogue called Roads End: the Final Chapter was shot and added as a supplement to Season Two on DVD.