Six Degrees

Monday, April 9, 2007

Once again, I find myself in the position of reviewing a show that has, by the time of review, already been cancelled. In the case of Six Degrees, at least, I don't feel too bad about delaying, mostly because it took me months to sort out my opinions on the show.

For starters, the premise of the show is really pretty trite and annoying. Follow a handful of characters and, over time, show how they are all connected because, even in a giant city like New York, this is a small world and we're all neighbors and so on and so forth. Still, you have to figure that after a half season, they'd have pretty much exhausted that premise and we'd just end up with a drama about a variety of people who kind of know each other, but with a somewhat inexplicable title. That's fine with me. I don't need a hook for a show, provided the characters are well-acted and well-written.

And, I guess that's sort of the problem. The acting is really quite excellent. Most of the cast are people who were highly acclaimed for their first high-profile role, then sort of fell off the map a bit (in the case of this cast, they were the much-remarked upon actors from Dying Young, crazy/beautiful,Next Stop, Wonderland, The Sum of All Fears, and Traffic). I'm particularly fond of Hope Davis and will watch her in just about anything, but everyone does a nice job, at least given the material, which is a little subpar. The storylines are rarely original-feeling, to the point that I spent most of the few episodes that aired complaining about the writing.

Then the show went off the air for several months, and I found myself missing it a bit. Sure, quite a lot of that has to do with suddenly losing a weekly opportunity to watch Hope Davis act, but I ended up kind of caring what happened to the characters. I was actually pretty excited (in a very guilty way) to hear that the show was coming back.

When it was back, I was actually able to set aside my complaints about the writing better and just enjoy the performances (though, I should note that I did not stop complaining about the truly bizarre costuming inflicted on the actresses on this show). Of course, given my track record, a whole-hearted endorsement of the show is a certain kiss of death, since Six Degrees only lasted a couple episodes this time before disappearing forever. Ah, well.

Rating: B+ (Will be missed by me, at least)

Reviewed by Padgett Arango
Contents
The Hills Have Eyes 2

Hostel Part II

Six Degrees

Shark

Jericho

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

Justice

The Hills Have Eyes

Love Monkey

Out of Practice

Head Cases

Crunchwrap Supreme

The Exorcism of Emily Rose

Batman Begins

Garden State

Hero

13 Going On 30

LAX

Starman

quirkyalone.net

Kill Bill, Vol. 2

Line of Fire

We Shall All Be Healed

Happy Family

Arrested Development

Love Actually

A Minute with Stan Hooper

Tarzan

Karen Sisco

Stop All the World Now

Cold Case

Skin

10-8

Joan of Arcadia

Eve

Luis

Lost In Translation

House of 1000 Corpses

Bubba Ho-Tep

Darkness Falls

Pirates of the Caribbean

The Amazing Race

Treasure Island

FearDotCom

Adaptation

To Hit Armor Class Zero

Without A Trace

8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter

Life With Bonnie

JalapeƱo Cheeseburger

The Mothman Prophecies

Happy Campers

The Man Who Wasn't There

Kiss of the Dragon

Josie & the Pussycats

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Dr. Pepper

Know By Heart

Waking Life

L.I.E.

Thirteen Ghosts

Earthlink presents Chang and Eng

New York and Country Bar

Change

Motivation and Water Tower Grammar

Crossing Philly

Makeout Club

Undeclared

The Gap

The Abolition of Work

3000 Miles to Graceland

Kolobos

Duets

The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Diesel Sweeties

The Cold Six Thousand

The Grilled Stuft Burrito (Rebuttal)

60 Second Wipeout

The Patriot

Grilled Stuft Burrito

Cowgirls

Crystalline

Frankenfinger E.P.

One Force Down

Shake

Both Our Secrets

Happy Birthday Captain Columbus!

Fight Club

Whatever It Takes

Committed

That Skinny Motherfucker with the High Voice?

Joe Dirt

The Veggie Whopper

Taco Bell Nachos

Palmetto

Godzilla vs. Monster Zero

The Terror of Mechagodzilla

To The Center

Infiniti+Infiniti

American Psycho

The Del Shredder

What Lies Beneath

The Cheesy Gordita Crunch

Bring It On

Chill Factor

Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars

Bad Company

The Blair Witch Project

Hyacinths and Thistles

Lake of Dracula

We'll Have a Time

Home Depot

Snow Day

The Virgin Suicides