After only three episodes, NBC has canceled the Playboy Club, of course anyone expecting anything different was seriously disillusioned. The fact that the show even made it to the fall line up is a miracle all on itself. 1960s Chicago at the Playboy Club - women running around dressed as bunnies but with a third-wave feminist approach to life. They know how they look and they're going to flaunt it. It's a way to get away with it but it doesn't quite hold up. Not all is peachy as the opening episode shows the newest bunny Maureen killing the head of the mob with her stiletto heel. It was a magnificent murder I have to say, especially for television but not a way to start a show that you want to continue. And if the bunny aspect wasn't risque enough then how about the secret group of homosexuals via for political power! Although NBC isn't as conservative at FOX it's still a little too conservative to tackle that subject. I really don't understand why the show wasn't on cable to begin with, that's where this show belongs so it can fully explore it's adult subject matter.
Of course the reason for the show was to compete with AMC's Mad Men which has been so successful for the cable network and NBC is not alone. ABC came out with Pan Am, another 1960s set drama focusing on the airline with a espionage subplot. With it's third episode being played today it might have more life than the Playboy Club as its more about nice America but it's boring. Christian Ricci does a nice job and its good to see her in something again but the show doesn't have anything to keep it going. The espionage sort of came out of the blue but isn't intriguing enough to keep interest. My main problem with it is that it's highly artificial. There is a lot of cheap CGI which just makes it painful to watch. The aesthetic is also very sterile. There's bright color that is used but its almost as if there's too much color. It basically feels like the show is shot at a hospital, a very strange aesthetic for a show and leaves the audience feeling misplaced.
Compare this with The Playboy Club where you have the dark streets of Chicago run by the mob and it's a whole lot more interesting. Jenna Dewan-Tatum (from Step Up) is great as bunnie Janie and has an interesting back story that begins to unfold while David Krumholtz (10 Things I Hate About You) struggles with the time period and just doesn't quite fit although he gets all the funny sarcastic lines like, "Who needs smart? You're the only man I know who puts his hand up a girl's skirt looking for a dictionary." Carol Lynne (Laura Benanti) is a joy to watch, mostly what draws me I think is the singing. The music in the show is great which also makes this show much more enjoyable to watch than Pan Am. Amber Heard is super annoying at the blonde blue eyed new bunny, her voice just grates and I definitely don't really care what happens to her. She's too scared of a character and relies to heavily on Nick Dalton to save her. She's the kind of character that you want to get caught by the mob and found in the gutter the next morning. And her character is mirrored in Pan Am's Laura (Margot Robbie) whose also annoying and lost. In fact, both shows set up a strange combination of strong female characters with super weak female characters.
What I find really amazing is how white both of these shows are. Playboy allows for a African-American bunny with lots of things about civil rights so that was nice but Pan Am adds an Indian to the cockpit who is totally out of place. Of the two show, both of which feed on the success of Mad Men I would rather watch The Playboy Club.With The Playboy Club's cancellation I'm not sure how much longer Pan Am will last. Of course the amount of time networks are giving new shows is ridiculous. The Playboy Club for three episodes and Free Agents didn't get much better, both airing on NBC. You would think that the networks would one: out more effort into finding things that people like and two: give the shows they have chosen a bit more time to find an audience. Now old shows, like the Simpson (granted airing on FOX) are given a longer lease on life and change is diverted. What we're left with is more of the same. This is the reason everyone moves to cable.
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