Second Opinions, Part I - Everwood

This is a series of posts on shows that I've decided to give second chances to, with mixed results. Stay tuned!

Inexplicably this season I've started to watch Everwood again. I actually never really watched this show regularly before, but for some reason I'm really digging it now. When the show first premiered, I had actually found it kind of annoying. The whole Colin thing was just way too melodramatic for me, and I found it irritating that at like 15, Amy was already this long-suffering girlfriend who acted more like she was in her thirties. Ephram was too whiny, the adults were too quirky, and I hated those voiceovers. Plus I really am completely disinterested in medical shows, and while Everwood had mostly cutesy small-town medicine as opposed to the standard TV hospital stuff, I still found all of those scenes really boring.

Admittedly, I still skip over a lot of the doctor stuff and I'm not very interested in the adult plotlines in general, but the show has really grown into its own. Bright's transformation has turned him from dumb jerk to just plain loveable, Ephram has relaxed a little and is a lot less whiny, and Amy has actually joined my very short list of female TV characters that I actually like.

And seriously, the writing and acting this season has just been damn good. Bright and Hannah are running against Seth and Summer for cutest couple ever, and after all of their ridiculous ups and downs, Amy and Ephram still manage to have amazing tension and chemistry. This past week when Ephram suddenly told Amy that he was still in love with her, my heart totally skipped a beat...it was that convincing. (I never said that I wasn't a sap.) And the show doesn't only focus on the romantic storylines. The story arc where Hannah's father died and she wanted to leave Everwood showed how conscious the writers are of that other stuff: the scene when Amy tells Ephram how much she was going to miss Hannah and the scene when Ephram goes to tell Hannah about it were just perfect. Plus the show has moved away from the annoying quirky humor that always seems to come along with small-town shows but has kept enough light and funny moments. The show still can get a little too schmaltzy at times, but overall I've really been enjoying it.

Of course, as soon as I get into it all, the show is taking a break to make way for another season of Beauty and the Geek. Of course I'll probably watch that too though...