Thursday, September 22, 2011

The Playboy Club - Pilot, S01E01

As a huge fan of period pieces, The Playboy Club appeals to me for many of the same reasons Mad Men does - the costuming, the sets, the reminiscing of a much classier time. And this show is not nearly so depressing as the AMC hit, which is definitely a bonus.

The local is sexy. Our two main locations are the Playboy Club and the Playboy Mansion, where all the bunnies are dressed in sweet little costumes that cover so much that for a 2011 audience, they really aren't revealing. I want some of those outfits. I'm glad, however, that I don't have those names. Why did they pick Maureen for the name of the main character? We still need a few more years to go by before that will get revitalized.

As for the story, while we do have a little bit of house drama between our newest bunny, Maureen (Amber Heard), and the most senior bunny-now-bunny mother, Carol-Lynne (Laura Benanti), it seems that the crux of the plot is going to centre around the mob and the disappearance of the leader of one family after his visit to the Playboy club. Perhaps that is the corporation forcing the tv show to keep itself from getting inappropriate? Hard to say. I'm not displeased at the idea of a 1960s mob show, but find it interesting that its title is Playboy.

I do like it and I want to keep watching. Again, more for the glam than anything else at this moment. The characters are fun and interesting enough, the plot does have places to take us. I do have to ask why exactly Don Draper was cast as the lead. I mean, it's not surprising that Eddie Cibrian's Nick Dalton dresses the same as the ad man, or has the same hair style - these were very popular for your 60s ladykiller, but somehow Cibrian has the exact same voice, the same pitch, same intonations, same everything? Really. I could record them both saying the same line and not be able to differentiate between the two. That might get annoying, though the similarities to Jon Hamm aren't really a bad thing.

So I'm going to keep watching and keep enjoying, but I'm not 100% sold and do worry that this show might not be the success that its bold title deserves.



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