new show review: Privileged
Privileged is the story of Megan Smith, a journalist struggling because she wants to do REAL journalism instead of fluff. (Yes, we’ve seen that before. It won’t be the last overused story element.) Her boss essentially fires her, but offers to set her up with another employment opportunity, presumably interviewing or writing for an uber-wealthy foundation chairwoman, played by Anne Archer. Archer’s character has two granddaughters, spoiled heiresses. (Even the show points out how often we’ve seen that before.) Grandma offers Megan a super-plush arrangement–room, board, a sweet car, and her days free to pursue her writing—if Megan will tutor the grandkids in the evenings. There’s some other stuff with a down-to-earth prince charming, an estranged sister, etc., but I don’t want to make it sound too much more complex than it is.
Perhaps its because I pay the bills as a professional yuppie larva trainer myself that I connected a bit with this show. Yes, it’s light fare. Lite, even. But, hey, while Privileged may be painting in archetypical characters, it promises to focus on the relationships between those archetypical characters in a worthwhile way. If this is your type of show, Privileged is at least a solid entry in its genre.
Best aspect: JoAnna Garcia, doing her best Amy Adams, seems to have the charm to anchor a show.
Worst aspect: Meanwhile, Garcia stays only this side of cloying so far. Also, there ain’t a whole lot of subext in this writing.
Verdict: Pretty sure I’m not the target demographic here…
Odds of success: It’s a niche show, so it’ll never score huge numbers. But on CW, it doesn’t take too many million to define a hit. While it has some competition in its time slot, Privileged follows 90210. That could be a smart lead-in for this kind of programming.
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