TV is the New Reading

ABC’s “Cupid”

is charming

“The world felt the tremor
and the darkness was pierced.”

And burst forth hard upon was “Cupid,” a dramatic romance featuring Bobby Cannavale in the heart-warmingly insouciant role of the very god of love himself.

We meet him in the pilot episode freshly fallen to Earth from Mt. Olympus and promptly institutionalized in the wake of one of the grandest possible gestures – disrupting the New Year’s Eve ball-drop in Times Square to help “Dave” reach out to “Holly.”

Dave and Holly have a trans-Atlantic romance, based on a brief encounter where Holly, an American visiting Ireland, ducked into the pub where Dave was working and they fell in love at first sight. She returned to America that afternoon, however. He followed her, but tragically didn’t know how to find her.

So Cupid arranged a public spectacle, knocking out the lights in the “Happy New Year 2009” sign to read “Marry Me, Holly,” and got himself arrested.

He spent a month in psychiatric evaluation by Sarah Paulson as analyst Dr. Claire McCrae, a relationship expert who leads a singles encounter group and has a few cynical books out about love and couplehood. Her conversations with Cupid touch on his mythology and his current mission – that is, to match up 200 soulmates before he can return to his home on Mt. Olympus.

Development

At the end of her evaluation, Claire argues that he is no danger to himself or others, and can be released on his own recognizance provided he check in with her on an outpatient basis, and that he join her encounter group. He is still delusional, however – she said he didn’t seem to recall any name beyond “Cupid.”

Cupid, looking at the writing on the wall – literally, the quotation at the head of this blog – gives his name as Trevor Pierce (from “TREMOR” and “PIERCED”), and he is released.

He returns instantly to the problem of Dave and Holly. He sets up an interview with Madelyn, a feature writer at the New York Post, to follow up Dave’s New Year’s Eve shout-out, and arranges a karaoke night so the two can meet. Sadly, while Holly and Dave seem a little disconnected, Madelyn finds herself drawn to the hopeless Irish romantic. And when Dave and his expired visa are run to earth by the good folks at the Immigration and Naturalization Service, true love is in the air when Madelyn – not Holly – hops a plane to Ireland.

The drama is heightened a bit with the tension between Claire’s cynicism and Trevor’s optimism. When Claire takes a purely rational view of love, breaking it down to chemical constituents – “Love is what’s left when all the passion and fire have died” – Trevor, horrified, asked “Who ripped your heart out?”

And when Claire insists that love is hard, Trevor retorts, “Life is hard. Love is easy.”

And the show goes on to explore that premise.

Meanwhile, one can question whether the charming asylum escapee “Trevor Pierce” is actually Cupid – without his bow and arrows, he’s basically an engagingly personable guy with boundary issues who involves himself pretty deeply in the lives of complete strangers. But back at his apartment hangs a taut string of beads, and as Madelyn and Dave are reunited in Dave’s bar back in Ireland, one bead is seen to separate itself from the rest.

Spooky.

Love at first sight

I’m charmed utterly by this show – moreso, it would seem, than fans of the original series that starred Jeremy Piven in the title role.

See, Rob Thomas – the genius behind the far-too-shortlived CW project “Veronica Mars” – pitched “Cupid” back in the late ‘90s. It didn’t do especially well and got canceled within a season. But it seems like its fans were a small but fiercely dedicated group who – if the fan forums are to be believed – are vocally resistant to change. According to one – penelope1985 on tv.com – “Bobby Cannavale (Cupid/Trevor Pierce) is no Jeremy Piven.”

Fair enough. But since I missed the original version entirely, he doesn’t hardly have to be. He just has to be Cupid, and for all intents and purposes, I felt that he nailed it.

I’m told that the new series, also a Thomas production, has a stronger focus on the couple of the week and spends less time on Claire and Cupid, whereas before – again, I am told – the entire show seemed to revolve around them and Cupid’s mission was eclipsed. I understand some weeks didn’t seem to feature any resolution at all.

My guess is that this more couple/mission-centric approach is meant to keep the show fresh and exciting. But honestly, I’m finding the chemistry between the leads to also be some pretty exciting stuff as well, reminiscent of “Moonlighting’s” Dave and Maddy, “Bones’” Booth and Brennan and, more recently, “Castle’s” Kate and Richard.

In the meantime, if the densely written pilot is anything to go by, Thomas has taken a solid stab at a character-based, emotionally compelling series – one whose time might indeed have come.

“Cupid” airs at 9 p.m. Tuesdays on ABC.

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