Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

'Jane the Virgin,' 'Marry Me' premiere

The CW scores with a telenovela adaptation while NBC presents a rom-com starring Casey Wilson from the creator of "Happy Endings."

Jane The Virgin -- "Pilot" -- Image JAV100b_0289 -- Pictured (L-R): Gina Rodriguez as Jane and Andrea Navedo as Xiomara - Photo: Greg Gayne/The CW -- © 2014 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.
Jane The Virgin -- "Pilot" -- Image JAV100b_0289 -- Pictured (L-R): Gina Rodriguez as Jane and Andrea Navedo as Xiomara - Photo: Greg Gayne/The CW -- © 2014 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.Read moreGreg Gayne/The CW

* JANE THE VIRGIN. 9 tonight, CW57.

* MARRY ME. 9 p.m. tomorrow, NBC10.

A TV SHOW ABOUT a 23-year-old virgin who becomes accidentally pregnant in a doctor's office wouldn't be the first place I'd look for a thoughtful treatment of the emotional implications of abortion, adoption or single motherhood.

But the CW's "Jane the Virgin" surprised me. In all the right ways.

Smartly (and somewhat loosely) adapted from a Venezuelan telenovela, the show, premiering tonight, stars Gina Rodriguez ("Filly Brown") as Jane Villanueva. Raised by a single mother (Andrea Navedo) and a pious grandmother (Ivonne Coll), she's serious enough about sticking to her life plan that she and her detective boyfriend (Brett Dier) are forgoing sex until after they're married.

So getting artificially inseminated during what's supposed to be a routine Pap smear is more than an oops.

Best not to think too much about the series of wild coincidences and unlikely mischances that propel the plot of "Jane the Virgin": Your head will hurt.

Your heart, though, may be touched. Because while the situations are far-fetched, the emotions are real. And Rodriguez, as a young control freak coming to terms with a situation she can't easily control, or dismiss, is terrific.

'Marry Me'

It's been more than a year, but some fans of the ABC-canceled comedy "Happy Endings," I know, have had trouble letting go.

Creator David Caspe has, happily, moved on, at least to the extent that he has a new sitcom premiering tomorrow on NBC, starring former "Happy Endings" cast member Casey Wilson, who in the interim married him.

Titled "Marry Me," it's kinda, sorta based on the couple's relationship, though theirs did not inspire the initial proposal in the show.

(If you've been out to a movie in the past several weeks, you've probably already seen the proposal scene, ad nauseam, but please, try to act surprised. And if you happen to also watch "Jane the Virgin," try to act surprised when you later see a scene very similar to one from that show played out here, too.)

Wilson stars as Annie, who's been with Jake (Ken Marino, "Veronica Mars") long enough that she thinks she's overdue for a marriage proposal. Jake isn't nearly the oaf Marino's played so wonderfully in the past, but he's also, refreshingly, not a generic romantic lead.

Tim Meadows ("Saturday Night Live") and Dan Bucatinsky ("Scandal") play Annie's fathers, both named Kevin, and JoBeth Williams is Jake's mother.

John Gemberling ("Broad City") plays the Bearded Sidekick without whom it's apparently impossible to get a rom-com on the air this season.

Annie, who's less cartoonish than Wilson's "Gone Girl" character, may still at times seem like someone you'd avoid in your real life. But she and Marino have established a nice chemistry by the end of the pilot, which gives me hope for a show whose premise appeared limiting.

Caspe told reporters this summer that the show "is not really about a wedding or a marriage, necessarily. It's just sort of about a couple and their friends and their parents and stuff like that."

Sound familiar? If not "Happy Endings," it may be at least a happy beginning.

Readers weigh in

Most members of our Everybody's a Critic panel weren't ready to commit to "Marry Me," awarding it a 4 on a scale of 1 to 10.

Still, individual scores ranged from 1 to 10 and while only three of the 11 readers chosen in this year's critic-for-a-night contest said it was "very likely" they'd watch "Marry Me" again, those three really seemed to enjoy it.

"Very funny, smart and refreshing," wrote Joy Moore, of Nicetown.

"Interesting and modern," wrote Gwen Blackshear, of Southwest Center City. "I could totally relate to the show, because I am in my early 30s and am dealing with the same issues!"

" 'Marry Me' is tailor-made for Casey Wilson and Ken Marino," wrote Robert Dougherty, of Northeast Philadelphia. "This is going to live and die on the stars and their chemistry and it certainly lives in the pilot."

Just not for everyone.

"Casey Wilson was very over the top," complained Laurie Ann Powell, of Cherry Hill. "I almost wanted the characters to be broken up by the end."

John Hall, of South Philadelphia, delivered his critique in one word: "Terrible."

On Twitter: @elgray