Sci Fi Alert

I’m a big John Updike fan, mostly his Rabbit series, but I’ve enjoyed reading several of his novels.  One of those I really enjoyed was The Witches of Eastwick.  It’s very Updike, but also something I would not have thought he’d write.  I’m also a fan of the 1987 movie starring Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer.  I’m not a fan of Nicholson — I often find him rather disgusting to watch — but the film itself was very good even if it wasn’t a good representation of novel.  For these reasons I found myself looking forward to the new series Eastwick.  Yeah, it was definitely chick lit for the small screen, but I wanted to give it a chance.  After viewing the pilot my mind is not completely made up.

The pilot centers on the characters of Roxie, Kat, and Joanna.  Three women who are looking for something more out of their lives.  One day they make a wish over a fountain and Darryl Van Horne enters their lives to shake things up.  The premise set up in the pilot definitely has potential, especially if the women begin to develop their “witch” side; however, based on what I’ve read and what I saw in the pilot the network may be looking to downplay the witchy-ness of the series, and I think that would be a mistake.  I certainly don’t want to see a New England version of Charmed, but if the network is going to downplay the witch side of things then I don’t think the series will work.  Without the paranormal side, this series is just like many of the recent, failed series featuring a trio of women.