If you’re eagerly anticipating Showtime’s new series Leap Years (premiering Sunday, July 29 at 10 p.m. EST; then subsequently moving to 10:45 p.m. as its permanent timeslot), you may want to consider leaping to another channel instead.
It’s bad.
The premise, concocted by Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman (the writers of Showtime’s far superior Queer As Folk), is enticing: the lives of five friends are examined in 1993, 2001 and 2008, tracing from their college days up to married (and divorced) life, kids and all. Not a bad idea. But the execution isn’t quite as slick as the conception. Weak acting is the main flaw, but then again, weak writing doesn’t exactly help either.
We begin in 1993, during the days of grunge rock, as the five try to get laid, do get laid, and end up whining about it to one another. That’s about it for college–though you can’t blame them: that’s what everyone did in college.
Next, we leap to the present day, where the group is out in the real world–well, Manhattan anyway–with real jobs and real problems, complete with fake dialogue. One character decides he’s gay, another, a successful Broadway singer, decides she really wants the guy who’s suddenly gay, and the rest wallow in domesticity, neglecting their families in favor of their fast-track careers.
Whoosh. Now it’s 2008. Telephones look like Star Trek phasers, and Canada’s one of the wine capitals of the world. The introduction of divorce–combined with a vanished child–adds some tension to the storyline, as does the gay man’s failing relationship with his significant other. The Broadway singer who wanted the gay man is now a bitter alcoholic, but stays sober enough to utter banal dialogue. But hey, the phasers are cool.
If Sunday’s two-hour premiere is any indication, Leap Years will leap off Showtime’s schedule for good once the series concludes.
