My Big Fat Greek Disappointment

I'm probably one of the six or seven people in the United States that haven't seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding yet - what can I say, it's hard to find the time to go out these days - but when I heard that Greek-Canadian actress/comedian/phenom Nia Vardalos was turning her movie into a television series with most of the cast members from the original movie, I was interested in checking it out. Four weeks later, I have checked out.

I'm sure the movie is good, but whatever charm the movie must have had, "My Big Fat Greek Life" has managed to lose. Sure, there are a couple of laughs here and there, and Nia Vardalos is indeed an engaging performer, but most of the episode plots are weakly written and not altogether thought out, and ther jokes mainly rely on one-liners and Nia's family feeling the need to remind everyone else that they're Greek, as if the audience didn't already know that.

I watched the first episode, and I thought the show had potential. The I watched the second episode. A little better, but still not quite right. I expected the third to be funnier. It wasn't. Nor was the fourth, which I decided to watch literally at the last minute. It suddenly dawned on me that "My Big Fat Greek Life" was a lot like those failed sitcoms the late McLean Stevenson attempted after leaving "M*A*S*H." That is, the only reason to watch "My Big Fat Greek Life" is to root for its likable star to succeed and hope against hope that the series will improve, even if you already sense that that's not going to happen and there are better things you could do with that half-hour of time.

And why didn't I give the fifth episode, which aired tonight, a chance? The special guest star was Yanni.

Yanni.

I think that says it all.

P.S. I'm at least going to make a point to rent My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

P.P.S. My report on this year's Beatles convention will come a little later, so stay tuned.