I’d like to say that I used to be wowed by Netflix’s collection adaption of Kristin Hannah’s novel, Firefly Lane (dropping Wednesday, Feb. 3). Fact be instructed, I dive into each present that I’m tasked with reviewing hoping the identical factor — to be dazzled, shocked, impressed.
I used to be none of these issues. There was nothing there that we haven’t seen earlier than, finished smarter, extra wittily and incisively, merely higher.
But I didn’t hate it, because the trailer made me concern that I might. Ultimately, the present, developed by Maggie Friedman (late of ABC’s short-lived Eastwick and Lifetime’s also-short-lived Witches of East Finish) was a run-of-the-mill cleaning soap opera, an inoffensive diversion shining a highlight on two extraordinarily interesting actors — Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke — who have been making the perfect of what… properly, merely wasn’t the perfect.
The plot follows a pair of lifelong pals, impulsive firecracker Tully Corridor (Heigl as an grownup) and bookish sparkler Kate Mularkey (Chalke as an grownup), by means of their introduction as eighth-graders to their grownup relationship. What occurs in between is sorta like a recreation of chick-flick bingo. If it’s a cliché, if it’s anticipated, if it’s apparent, as absolutely because the BFFs name one another bitch as a time period of endearment, it’s in there.
But at no level may I flip away. At no level did I even wish to. Early on, I used to be hooked. After that, Season 1 washed over me like a dose of bedtime Benadryl. It was unusually satisfying, from the horrible ’80s wigs to the “Wait, did I learn this guide already?” predictability of the plot twists.
It was, to not put too high-quality some extent on it, not nice. Not unique. Not creative. Not difficult in any method. However perhaps due to the aggravating occasions we’ve been by means of of late, it was simply what I wished.
It asks actually zilch of us.
Subtlety isn’t a consideration on Firefly Lane. The collection is a sledgehammer. A fairly, fairly sledgehammer. From the yin/yang variations between Tully and Kate (as youngsters, the wonderful tag crew of Ali Skovbye and Roan Curtis, the previous working a full pound of lip gloss, the latter saddled with glasses the scale of dinner plates) to the Very Large Points that concern their ’80s TV-station boss, Johnny (Ben Lawson), the whole lot is written in outsized, daring textual content.
And underlined.
Alongside the best way, actors benefit from their materials. Specifically, Beau Garrett is a “Whoa!” as Tully’s pothead mother, Brandon Jay McLaren charms as an eventual crush, and Jenna Rosenow makes a high-quality Leslie Grossman stand-in as an early-oughts Edina Monsoon. And there’s not an occasion wherein Chalke’s earthiness doesn’t serve her properly. Even when the eventualities into which Kate is thrown really feel totally pretend and manipulative, her portrayer’s innate likability reels us proper in.
Heigl, then again, comes throughout like she is aware of she’s headlining a paint-by-numbers dramedy that may stick with us for… Oops. Already forgotten. And it’s confounding. She’s an government producer on the venture in addition to one in all its leads, but she walks by means of it prefer it was a pilot that she didn’t ever anticipate to make it to air.
So, is Firefly Lane good? Alas, no. However is it entertaining? Kinda — and never even in a imply method. It’s an satisfactory time-passer until the reveals for which you’re actually jonesing are again on. There’s no extra disgrace in indulging in it than there’s in equating intercourse to ice cream.
I don’t must inform you that Firefly Lane does that, too, do I? Yeah, at this level, I didn’t assume so.
THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Firefly Lane is the definition of C-grade tv. It’s not going to KO anybody, however should you’ve acquired 10 hours to waste, it’s OK.