A Man. And His Blog.

Season 1, Episode 8
Date of airing: Jul 21, 2011 (NBC)
Nielsen ratings information: 1.80 million viewers, 0.7/2 with A18-49

“Bad in Bedbugs”: “I’m moving in with Charlie.” – “After two months? That’s very lesbian of you.” LOL. Other than that: That’s a story I can relate to, though bedbugs are not that bad like everybody is saying. As a regular guest of hostels I know what those beasts and the problems are all about, and I could totally understand the panic and angst of both Jodie (Michelle Trachtenberg) and Charlie (Bret Harrison). And thanks to the fact that it’s their second segment in the series, I was getting these 14 minutes even more than the last couple of segments. You see, LOVE BITES works better, if something actually bites, and it happens to recurring characters. What would have happened, if this show had 22 episodes? Would they tell the continuations of one couple every eight, nine episodes, and therefore is more a serial than before? It could have been really interesting that way, delivering around 20 different stories in one season and doing it in anthology form. To the story: partly hilarious, thanks to Wayne (Jonathan Slavin), partly just alright, thanks to the moment on the street and in the hotel. At times, it was a bit too abstract, and that the bedbugs almost won the fight against Jodie and Charlie seemed a bit too much for me. The message was nice though, and Annie (Becki Newton) should crack more after-pregnancy jokes. Boobsicles? Yes please!

“I Was Only Choking”: This segment was alright. Kyle (Stephen Rannazzisi) and Drew (Keegan Michael Key) weren’t really my favorite couple of the series so far, since they already found each other, and weren’t written to be funny, but it was again charming to see how they were fighting another crisis. The story was actually interesting, and it didn’t seem like out of the world in every relationship story possible. The writers did a nice job of including Judd (Greg Grunberg) and Colleen (Constance Zimmer) into the story, giving me the hilarious earthquake tips, and more information of how they are making love to each other every night. Those two are totally a cool couple – Kyle and Drew not so really. Plus, the dramatic of the story wasn’t really there, even though some scenes suggested that they should have been seen from an emotional angle. By the way: I really wanted to see more of Colleen trashtalking all those public engagements. I was almost laughing, when she sat angrily with her laptop on the couch, giving up on the world…

“Viral Proposals”: Reading the title, and reading what I’ve just written a couple of lines ago, I know what this is going to be about… And I was right. And then I was wrong. Because this was easily one of the best segments in the whole series. A nice story, a nice couple, actual drama, and the series closes with an open ending, which would make other TV writers jealous. Now I’m pretty sure that this was the actual episode to have been written and produced last, because the hope of seeing Matt (Matt Long) and Annie together in a future episode was just too great at the end. As if the writers planned a couple more storylines for the two, which is why they chose to break up Matt and Amanda (Jaime King) in this segment. And in a very touching scene as well. Jaime totally has drama written in her face during that scene – and I already loved her in MY GENERATION, so here’s to hoping that she will get a new show real soon. Because she is a good actress and she deserves to be bigger. And because the story here was actually good. I felt with Matt and Amanda, and the fact that they don’t have a future. Together with the neglecting of anything over the top (even the carwash proposal was kinda cool and cute), it made the story even more believable and great. Thankfully the series ends with this segment. It makes me remember LOVE BITES in a shining good light.

So, this was the last episode, but at the end I won’t miss the series much. It was good sometimes, it was bad sometimes, it was over the top sometimes, it brought me to learn things sometimes. Let’s see this show as a failed experiment, but hope that the network executives have not lost all their hopes of finding a similar show like this. I liked LOVE BITES for what it was and appreciate it because of that. It was like this final episode: relatable, alright, between great and totally boring. Therefore totally solid. 7.5/10

It's the beginning of some bedbug trouble

It's the end of a relationship

Season 1, Episode 7
Date of airing: Jul 14, 2011 (NBC)
Nielsen ratings information: 2.00 million viewers, 0.7/2 with A18-49

“Ben & Marissa”: Okay, the first half of this segment was cool, because it had two annoying-to-each-other characters finding love with each other, but the second half was so over the top, and went from romantically cute and funny to annoying, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The first half was totally working, the second half worked at failing in everything. I would call that “great” writing without a plan of how the story was supposed to end. Well, at least Marissa (Rebecca Creskoff) was less of the annoying character at the end, because I love those kind of bitch-turned-witch characters, who break a man’s heart, just because why the fuck not. I loved her cold behavior to Ben (Skylar Astin), and how she practically used him for revenge sex, and I wanted to love how Ben saw in Marissa his new love, his fine wine, his ladyfriend, whom he can talk about like Finch talks about Stifler’s mom. But the minisode turned ridiculous, when Ben was suddenly “in love” with her and gave her the birthday present. And then Rico (Eric Bruskotter) returned and made it even worse. There are no stakes for Ben, there is no fight of getting Marissa’s affection back, instead Rico wins back his wife, and Ben sits there with his ass open and his heart ripped apart. Not really romantic in my eyes…

“Steffi & Tommy”: No, I’m not buying this story. After all that went wrong between Tommy (Ian Reed Kesler) and Steffi (Aimee Garcia), they kiss at the end, and there’s an actual shot at a relationship? Sorry, but here the eleven minutes didn’t do anything to the story. Sorry, but no. And the segment started in an interesting way, shining light into a one night stand, which turns out to be a full day with all family and stuff. And I loved the discussion between Tommy and Steffi in the car, when she mentioned that women decide on the sex, but men decide on the relationship. That’s the first I’ve heard that, and it makes me develop some ideas for scripts. Anyway, Tommy wasn’t a likable character with his all-time “be funny and light-hearted”, and the first meeting between him and Steffi’s family was awkwardly terrible. Not just because Tommy looked at Jesus and started to lie, even though he had enough chances to get himself out of this situation more cleaner, but Steffi’s family was even more terrible than Tommy. Uargh. And something else: With the three-second shot of Chris Gorham (who will definitely be the main guy in the last story), I was actually believing to see that this was the first episode since the pilot, which has all three stories connected and crossovered (I don’t think that’s a word) somehow. Why couldn’t have the other episodes been like that?

“Dale & Audrey”: Well, at least this segment was better than the previous two. It played with the expectations of the viewer, it had a nice story, an even nice outcome, and the characters were not annoying. All of it thanks to the extra time this story got. Probably because the writers had a couple more ideas for this one. And I actually can’t believe it, but I’m in love with the French accent again. Audrey (Izabella Miko) was a cool character, though only in this story to try to find out if Dale is either lost in parenthood, or gay. And I loved how she worked herself through him. Starting with all the offensive flirting, going over to the sex scene in the restaurant, ending with buying new clothes – in which Dale finds his giraffe, just because he was able to look beyond the French tits. It was actually hilarious at that moment, and the minisode showed the biggest moral in this scene. In this case, it was good writing. And thanks for the writers to bring Chloe (Jessica St. Clair) and Annie (Becki Newton) back. I kinda missed them. Somehow, thanks to Becki’s pregnancy, there was never really a story for Annie. Maybe she’s getting something in the next episode…

All in all, the episode was alright. Two segments I didn’t like much, the third segment was the best, a charming cast again, a couple of annoying characters too many… Business as usual in broadcast network television. 6/10

Fact: Couples have always sex with their bra on

Fact: French girls are sexy

Season 1, Episode 6
Date of airing: Jul 7, 2011
Nielsen ratings information: 1.98 million viewers, 0.7/2 with A18-49

“Fetishes”: That’s how I want a minisode to have actually. Short, a little story, lots of humor, a bit sex in it, and with a tiny little romantic message at the end, which lets the episode shine above anything else. I loved this segment, and how the story was all about being cool in a relationship or as a person. And thankfully it didn’t establish that having a fetish also means that you’re cool. But the segment could have shown this side a bit more with Bridget (Ashley Williams). She said she was mortified by it, but I didn’t see any of it during the 12 minutes. But I sure loved Jeff’s (James Roday) point of view. Especially how he came into the house with his cop uniform and the whole background story of his character. And shit, I was laughing, when he came with “ultrafox in need of boning” and “I need to dust your vagina for fingerprints”. Though the last one could have been the best gag in the current summer TV season, if Jeff wouldn’t have laughed that one off…

“Becky’s Situation”: Wasn’t this segment a bit short? 24 minutes into the episode, and the middle part is already done. That makes me wonder if the third story is filled with too much boredom. To say something about this story… It was okay. There isn’t much air between Bay Kennish and Becky, and both characters could have been the same – which only means that Vanessa Marano is an actress who still has to learn how to separate herself from her characters. Her STD story was entertaining, could have had a bit more drama though. When Judd (Greg Grunberg) was mentioning her the high school romance of her mother, I would have expected to hear the full story, but only because it would have been fitting at the end of the episode. Because I actually didn’t see the moral at the end. Yeah, Ian (Shayne Topp) was a shitty boyfriend for a night in the back of a car, but the minisode could have been great, when there would have been a connection between Becky’s situation today and what her mother was living through, when she was the same age. I have to say though I totally loved Becky’s best friends Natasha (Rachel DiPillo) and Cara (Yin Chang). Especially their “we’re gonna die awkwardly”-hug was totally hilarious.

“Creepy Dad”: Well, the minisode was good, but clearly too long. And it didn’t manage to connect the previous two segments with its moral, since the connection between them felt way too forced this time. As if it was necessary to have two scenes from the previous segments in the third one, but the writers haven’t found a way to let them glide right into the third story. Furthermore, I didn’t really like Brian (Jay Harrington) as a character. Somehow he was over the top, when he started to be awkward, and he didn’t have any chemistry with Kristen (Cheryl Hines). I loved the father/daughter relationship between Brian and Maddy (G. Hannelius) though – it always reminds me of the coolness between Jerry and Ray in JERRY MAGUIRE, and how especially daughters without a mother seem to be much cooler than everybody else. At least in Hollywoodland. I loved the penis cookies though, and how it was possible to confuse them with starting rockets. But other than that, the 19 minutes weren’t really exciting. Maybe next time.

All in all, it was a solid episode. Thanks to the last episode being a total letdown though – it makes this episode more refreshing, because it was about parent/kid relationships, which are always good in a comedy. Only the fetish story feels out of place now, even though it was my favorite one here. 7/10

Awkward sex practice

Awkward group hug

Season 1, Episode 5
Date of airing: Jun 30, 2011 (NBC)
Nielsen ratings information: 1.86 million viewers, 0.7/2 with A18-49

“There Goes My Hero”: The story isn’t really worth to be talked about, but fortunately it wasn’t a loser story either. The “secretly in love” bit was okay for my TV tastes, and the duel between Sam (Ben Feldman) and Dante (Brian J. White) was at least hilarious for a couple of seconds. But the minisode could have played a bit with the characters. Dante did feel to me like a wannabe-Rod Tidwell (I can’t believe I’m naming him in a TV review for two days in a row), but all without the cocky behavior and the element of craziness. No, Dante was just a baseball player, who thought of him as a star, who can get all the girls he wants to fuck. Even though Sam being his cockblocker was quite a nice move to the story, the 16 minutes were boring, because of the missing character depths. I only cared about Sam trying to strike Dante out, but I didn’t care about Prudence (Anna Camp), or what Sam’s father (Beau Bridges) had to say about the situation. Very boring. And the ending was a bit lame – so, Sam just smuggled Dante’s phone into Prudence’s purse? Kind of a cop-out…

“A Sexual Haunting”: Umm, yeah… Not really a likable story. It could have been a funny one (the sex haunting in the new house), it could have been an awkward one (Daryl [Jeremy Brandt] not remembering), but it was so-so, and sometimes it was nothing. I don’t even know what to think of it because of it. All the possible good things coming from this story weren’t used at all, which makes this minisode really boring. And I really liked the plot of Judd’s (Greg Grunberg) and Colleen’s (Constance Zimmer) new house being haunted by Coleen’s closet sex experiences during her time in the 90s. I even liked how Judd was reacting to it, and how he was about to get his cock blown out of his brain, because he didn’t have such an experience with Colleen, and because she had such a better sex life in her life (as opposed to Judd, who almost had sex with Jennifer Love Hewitt in a plane’s washroom). But when it came to Daryl not remembering, I was just waiting for the gag that it wasn’t in fact Daryl, whom Colleen had sex with. Or maybe that Daryl was in fact gay and didn’t want to tell anybody. I don’t know but the last couple of minutes really fucked up this segment. Average became uninteresting, boring and forgettable. What a shame, since the outline really was interesting.

“Not to Speak”: Well, this must clearly be the worst (because non-telling) segment in the series so far. It wasn’t funny, it didn’t have a message, the romance was in fact not gettable, and everything about the characters annoyed me, because I couldn’t buy their behavior. Julia (Emily Rutherfurd) was literally the queen in here, thinking about (and actually having) sex with the man of her dreams, but I never believed that Marcelo (Cristián de la Fuente) was actually a real love interest for her. Julia’s colleagues were annoying as well, since I couldn’t find out if Dennis (Tim Bagley) reacted the way he did, because he was gay (or wasn’t he?), or if Karen (Kathy Kinney) was just jealous, because she never has the chance to get a man like Julia has. So, in this case this segment could have done much better, but instead it just came up with de la Fuente singing Simple Minds (Oh. My. God.), and a little sex scene – nothing more, even something less. Yeah, it had absolutely nothing to offer.

All in all, it was a really lame episode. All three minisodes were boring and forgettable, and I didn’t take a moral this time. I don’t know if this episode was just the one, where the producers decided to stack all the trashy segments in, but luckily they did. Now I have the shitty storylines all behind me, and there are four episodes left. A real snoozefest. 3.5/10

A CGI ball is about to bury itself in Sam

Sex is no fun while thinking of work

Season 1, Episode 4
Date of airing: Jun 23, 2011 (NBC)
Nielsen ratings information: 2.03 million viewers, 0.8/2 with A18-49

“Sunday Fun Day”: This minisode is kinda a good example for a pretty big fact in the series: The writers so not care about ongoing storylines, and it’s all about anthology storylines. I don’t care much, and I don’t even care when NBC is airing the episodes out of production order, but I hope there is at least some sort of ongoing minimal background story with the supporting characters, especially when they are appearing in one or the other story. Like Dan (Steve Talley) for example, who was in the center of all attention in the last episode. He returns in this one, with his long hair, which was cut off last episode, and no mention of his new relationship at all. It really would be a good sign from the writers, when they at least have some inside jokes hidden within the episodes, to create a feeling that LOVE BITES is not a “fuck ‘em and forget ‘em” series, but instead a show everybody in the production was taking at least a bit serious. Other than that, the story couldn’t wow me at all. I would have expected for a bit more funny, when Judd (Greg Grunberg) was about to get high, and I was expecting even more funny, when he totally forgot the baptism of his nephew. Unfortunately, it was not in both parts. The story was just lame, and there wasn’t a message in it either. Instead the minisode just showed that Colleen (Constance Zimmer) is able to save Judd’s ass in front of his parents, just because she loves him. Or so. Yeah, not really a story I digged.

“Kiss and Tell”: I always kinda thought that the first minisode of the episode would be the better one, but before even watching the last third of it, I can surely say I totally liked this one, because of one only reason I was just criticizing seconds ago: It went back to an earlier story, and it even went so far to include two different stories, even though Annie’s (Becki Newton) little conversation with Matt (Matt Long) was only for two minutes. But hey, it was a fucking ongoing storyline – how cool is that? Now I wonder if the producers even cut the minisodes out of order, because “Sunday Fun Day” and this minisode somehow don’t belong in the same 43-minute episode. I got you, cutters. Anyway, I loved all the stories. Josh (Vincent Martella) was a cool character, whom I could feel with, and his troubles of not being a good kisser was understandable – all men were in a state when they wondered if they were a good kisser (or didn’t they? In which universe am I existing?). Furthermore, I liked both couplings – Josh and Christy (Spencer Locke), because of her needs to be wanted by somebody, as well as Josh and Kit (Abigail Mavity), because there was a romance story hidden, which I want to see continued in a later episode (and I already know it won’t happen). It was just great to see that Josh took initiative, even after the social networks were burning, and the hidden love story between Josh and Kit was totally sweet. I’ll remember to mouth “whisper” while kissing – never tried it before, let’s see if it’s really working.

“I Need Space”: Well, it was a nice little story, but compared to the first one it comes off second best. But it was clearly better than the first story, because there was a simple message in there, which I could compare with the tiny message in THE SOCIAL NETWORK: “I’m CEO, Bitch” works as good as “I’m an astronaut, Bitch”. When Craig (Isaiah Mustafa) was telling Scott (Eddie McClintock) at the end that he is a Colonel and an astronaut, and therefore has proper chances to nail a woman (because they want to have sex with astronauts), I was just thinking about “I”m astronaut, Bitch” and realized I should have been one. Or a CEO. Or something else, which brings in loads of money. The story was alright and delivered some good humor. I loved the scene, when Scott was spying on his girlfriend via a spy satellite, and I loved how the broadcast with the high school class turned out to be such a … burner. Though the masculine fight on the ISS was maybe a bit over the top, but I could live with it. Other than that, LOVE BITES could tolerate more of those funny, yet over-the-top storyline, which is actually playing on the episode title and its minisode title, instead of … I don’t know, simply telling a story with a little message and some sort of happy end?

All in all, the episode was somehow good. The first story was crap, but the other two were good and make this episode at least memorable. But the episode showed one thing: I learn a lot of stuff from television. This time how to use the word “whisper” during a specific situation. So, anybody should come and tell me that TV makes one stupid… 6.5/10

Fighting lovesickness with a whisper

Astronauts can be lovesick too

Season 1, Episode 3
Date of airing: Jun 16, 2011 (NBC)
Nielsen ratings information: 2.34 million viewers, 1.0/3 with A18-49

Goodbye, Boob: Definitely the most interesting story of the episode, since it wasthe only one, which became emotional during its second act. I liked the scene, when Dan (Steve Talley) started to care about Alex’ (Laura Prepon) cancer, and I very much liked the “second base” scene, despite the comedic undertone. I wonder how the story would have worked, if the writers completely focused on the drama of it, instead of changing it up to a light-hearted romantic storyline, where Alex was making a 180-turn during the “second base” scene. Maybe it wouldn’t have been wrong to kinda tease that this story is all about the drama, and not wasting the first act’s time with some good jokes and an awkward-feeling Judd (Greg Grunberg). Okay, I was laughing when he said about Alex’ boobs “If they were bigger, I could sign my whole name”. But I noticed that the story went a bit long. For example, I didn’t need the scenes after the second base, and before Dan enters the studio to talk to Alex – since the story was not long enough to be considered a love story, the actual love story elements were misplaced and wasting time. Bonus points for including one of my all-time favorite songs ever: Fade Into You by Mazzy Star.

Ninja Vanish: Definitely the most boring storyline. At the beginning it was still funny when Ricky (Donald Faison) was talking about the Ninja Vanish, but when it came to his challenging situation with Angie (Joy Bryant), I wished for this part of the episode to be shorter and ending soon. But it wouldn’t end and instead the story continued on a boring base. The twist with Angie being a “ninja” as well was nice though, but it didn’t bring anything into the story. I just think that it was a good choice to not write a happy-end-kinda-type ending to this story. It would have killed me, when the two, who basically don’t live to live through a relationship beyond the first date, would have gotten together at the end.

Cutlets: The story was alright. First I have to say that Annie (Becki Newton) really looked sexy as a pregnant woman, and that she seems to be the most charming recurring character. With it, she finally got a story, and even though it was a rather stupid one, I liked the chemistry between her and the wrong Matt (Matt Long). The thing is just, it could have been a much funnier storyline played out in a 43-format. At the end, I didn’t care about Annie having to blind date the “better Matt” (Matt Winston) and see in him a failure of a man (this guy was really awkward, I as a pregnant woman would have kicked him in the balls, after he would have touched me). But during this story, I noticed that there will be storylines in LOVE BITES, which are just not suited for the format of a short anthology – like this story.

All in all, the episode was alright. While I was saying after the pilot that LOVE BITES was my new favorite show, I’m now back on the ground: It is solid entertainment, but maybe it was not such a good choice to squeeze three stories into 42 minutes. Maybe just two would have been better… 6/10

The ponytail is falling

Not the worst threesome for one of the involved

Season 1, Episode 2
Date of airing: Jun 9, 2011 (NBC)
Nielsen ratings information: 2.37 million viewers, 1.0/3 with A18-49

“Banana Bread”: A story between hilarious and romantic, even though it completely reminded me of the first story from the pilot. Both are similar in its structure, and both have pretty much the same happy end. Unfortunately for this story, it again didn’t manage to being Annie (Becki Newton) into the center of attention (maybe because she is still pregnant, and the producers didn’t want her to lift the heavy things), and it kinda had two lame characters with Jody (Michelle Trachtenberg) and Charlie (Bret Harrison). Those two weren’t even good enough for an independent movie for a romance. Both were missing likable characteristics; the two were completely uninteresting for me. But I loved their story. The breakup reasons are always nice for a comedy, though I wished it could have been a subplot for the whole episode. I loved the scene in the strip club, when the boys were going crazy (having eyegasms) and the girls were turning the tides, winning this “battle”. Other than that it wasn’t really my favorite story of the episode.

“Decent Proposal”: This story could have been much better. I accept the twist of the mother (Frances Conroy) being the homophobe, but it was wrapped in a really lame and unexciting story. I only loved a couple of seconds of it, but only because I was laughing about Judd’s (Greg Grunberg) comment of “hanging a painting” – I could have basically said the same to that phrase at that time, when I would suddenly learn the love story of my neighbor and his crazed parents. For the rest I have to say that the love story between Kyle (Stephen Rannazzisi) and Drew (Keegan Michael Key) was alright. There wasn’t much to be excited with it, since the humor was missing; and there wasn’t much of a message to give, since the parents were the message for the audience. A forgettable story and the weakest for me in this episode.

“Eyegasms”: And again, the third story was the most funniest. Though the plot wasn’t really good for much, I loved the results of the fantasy thing. I was laughing mostly throughout the second part of the story, starting with Colleen (Constance Zimmer, what a shame she replaced Pamela Adlon) being jealous of the barista named Jenny, ending with the little Robert Giuliani talk in front of the two cops. Imagine a couple talking about 9/11 heroes and banging Giuliani at the same time in front of a coffee shop – yeah, I was pretty much out of breath, when the story finished. The only thing is: I didn’t like the happy ending of it, because that was too much of a stereotype. Sure, it made the verbal fight about the fantasies just a normal day-to-day fight among every couple in the world, but that was so sugar-coated, I was rolling with my eyes.

Conclusion: the episode was alright. One story was forgettable, one story didn’t do much with its story, the third one saved the episode. I’m still a friend of LOVE BITES, but if the remaining seven episodes are on the same level, the show will be forgotten after half a year or so. 6.5/10

The strip club and its horny customers

Awkward moment is awkward

Season 1, Episode 1
Date of airing: Jun 2, 2011 (NBC)
Nielsen ratings information: 2.64 million viewers, 1.0/3 with A 18-49

What is anyone expecting from a TV show, when you were following all the bad news surrounding the production and delay of the premiere? First the exit of Jordana Spiro, after her character was supposed to be one of the two main characters; then the exit of showrunner Cindy Chupack, as well as the pregnancy of cast member Becki Newton, which led to changing the show contentwise; the cut-back of 13 episodes to only 9; and then the rescheduling into the summer months, which led the actors to land pilots elsewhere. That’s the tragic story of LOVE BITES, beginning with an interesting way of telling love-related storylines in a somewhat-anthology, ending in the sure-to-be-cancelled section on NBC, in the middle of summer, where nobody is watching anything. Now here’s the sad part: I liked the pilot. And here’s the sad question: Why are most of the refreshing shows like LOVE BITES (THE EX LIST comes to mind) always bound to fail?

Furthermore, I asked myself the question why I actually liked the pilot, after I was expecting to absolutely hate it. The answer was easy: The pilot doesn’t take its stories very seriously, and there’s no sense of authenticity and message. LOVE BITES is a show, which finally wasn’t made to hammer something into your brain to take with you, instead it just wants to entertain. It wants to be funny, heart-warming, light, and uncomplicated. It wants its cast to be charming, its stories to be refreshing, and its audience to experience happy endings. During my review of FRANKLIN & BASH I wondered why a summer series is not able to put the clichés aside for at least a couple of episodes. LOVE BITES gave me another way of handling clichés: It plays with them in an unexpected way and makes them humorous. As if the writers wanted to have a series full of cliché-parodies.

First story: “First Time”
Probably the weakest of all three stories, since it was too normal for the pilot. But I liked the chemistry between Annie (Becki Newton) and Cassie (Krysten Ritter). I wondered why the two weren’t sisters from the beginning, and instead just friends. Maybe the humor of Annie’s pregnancy could have come over better, if the two really were sisters (the FRIENDS syndrome, when Phoebe was pregnant with her brother’s girlfriend’s babies). The romance story between Cassie and Jordan (David Giuntoli) was sweet, and it tells us (hey, there was a tiny message after all) that lies during a first encounter can help you build a relationship – at least for a night. The story somehow reminded me of BEFORE SUNRISE, just with more humor, and an awkward Cassie, who expects to be fucked, but has to realize that her new man might be one to keep. I t was just a shame that Becki Newton didn’t have much to do in this story, and that it was mostly all about Cassie. I loved the moments with Annie talking about “carrying the baby for her sister and her husband” – the perfect story for a mother-to-be without the father at her side (I’m curious if that’s becoming a continuous storyline in Annie’s string of stories throughout the only season), and actually funny and charming.

Second story: “First To Go”
Probably the story, which could have been better, when it would have played out all its strength. The whole vibrator thing was funny, especially when Carter (Kyle Howard) and Kell (Steve Howey) were in the sex store, about to be beaten by all the technology, which was actually better than themselves (that’s the fear all men have). The scene was even more funnier with Charlyne Yi as the store owner (she probably was) – I’m starting to fall in love with this girl, and I’m hoping that Steve Howey, whom I liked in SHAMELESS, will have at least another episode, just so the next one can play with the two characters. But since none of the cast of the middle storyline is in the title credits, I rather believe this story was just there to tell another story, without ever being continued in another episode. But I would love to, because the middle story had the best cast – I’m still waiting for Lindsay Price to get a challenging role in a real drama show (maybe she could change to premium cable)

Third story: “First On The List”
Definitely the best story in the pilot, thanks to Jennifer Love Hewitt, and thanks to the fact that she didn’t star as herself. The story of the famous “celebrity list” was funny to see, because it looked like an instructions manual of how not to talk to your number-one-celebrity on a plane, but then it all changed, and Judd (Greg Grunberg) and Jen suddenly had a great chemistry together, leaving their real lives out of the plane for the flight and having some fun. At the end, it was an instruction manual of how to talk to a celebrity, and when you have the world on your side, the celebrity just broke up with their partner and is out for some revenge, with sex involved. In addition the story proved that LOVE BITES is everything but real: What man could say from himself to have had no sex with the ghost whisperer, but telling anybody in the world that they’ve had sex on a plane flight to Miami? Curiously enough, I’m mentioning FRIENDS again, which had a similar storyline involving the celebrity list – now I wonder if there might be more FRIENDS references hidden in the pilot or in the rest of the series, or if it’s just me.

All in all, my expectations were exceeded. I never would have believed to have a funny and charming show with LOVE BITES. Unfortunately, it’s the next show of this kind after THE EX LIST, which won’t return for a second season. 8/10

It's not her first time

There's no sex in the plane