Starved

A time-worn attempt by the FX cable network. The topic is interesting. It's about a bunch of friends who get together at meetings for people with eating disorders. We have the bisexual Billie, raised by two fathers, who oscillates between anorexia, bulimia, and alcoholism, the anorexic Sam, who gambles with overeating, bulimic cop Adam, and the over-eater Dan, who keeps putting off bypass surgery. Their personal and professional lives are, of course, complicated by their relationship with food. But the half-hour format and very cheap look provide no surprises. With its openness, it could have been the second Sex and the City. The group also likes to talk about their intimacies over breakfast and deal with relationships. Taboo is a foreign word for dialogue and situations, but unfortunately, none of the main characters have become enough of a personality to convince the FX executives to keep it going. The green light was then given to the series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which is still on the air today. It does have its qualities but it doesn’t have to take responsibility for the feeling of futility, emptiness, despair, and depression that the looping ending of Starved evoked. It's quite hard to believe, but in just 210 minutes I found a way to empathize with these people. What does it matter that Billie has taken up with a girl with cancer, that Sam will never resolve his fixation with chocolate chip cookies, that Adam won't find his dream girlfriend and stop throwing up... and that Dan's probably gonna die of a heart attack soon? They're people just like us. (20/01/2011)