ABC Television Network
There’s a “Will They or Won’t They” type of thing going on with The Neighbors. Alien (as in extra-terrestrial) Reggie Jackson (Tim Jo) and Amber Weaver (Clara Mamet) were dating, but due to constant interference from Jane, Reggie’s supposed soulmate from his home planet, it looks like they are off now after Weaver threw in the towel in a recent episode. Will they resolve this in a way that’ll make people happy by the time that the season ends or will they leave it in a cliffhanger, hoping to be able to continue it in another season. (Hint, it’s never a good idea to do that, look at what happened with Terra Nova – we’ll never know what was actually going on when they found all those artifacts from other eras in the age of the dinosaurs.)
Mamet – yes, she’s a daughter of playwright David Mamet, just like her sister Zosia on Girls – and Jo have a good chemistry behind her sullen teenager mien. It’s clear that she still cares about Jackson although they are not together. Witness their looking out the window at each other as they watched movie night at their own home, an activity that was usually shared together, but obviously didn’t happen this time due to the breakup.
So what we’re looking at may be a Ross/Rachel type of situation, if Ross were an outer space being inhabiting a human form and Rachel made goths look cheery sometimes. This is one of the better opposites attract pairings that I’ve seen, though, with some really genuinely sweet moments, like when Weaver painted Jacksons’ room with glow-in-the dark paint to look like the nighttime sky. It was also painfully obvious that Jackson had strong feelings towards Weaver, with his constantly asking how she felt about him, so this who Jane situation just feels like a temporary roadblock. While I know that there’s supposed to be some kind of conflict to drive stories forward, I find Jane a rather irksome overly perky, nearly stalkerish nag who just won’t go away.
And hey, if they need good relationship advice between a human and non-human, they could always hit up a certain alien from the planet Ork. Which reminds me that it’s a shame that Robin Williams is busy on The Crazy Ones, since he’d be a perfect guest star for this show. Nanoo Nanoo.
