Creator
Darren Star
Cast:
Irene Molloy … Hunter Fallow
Al Santos … Johnny Bishop
Lindsay Sloane … Marcy Sternfeld
Bonnie Somerville … Courtney Scott
Kohl Sudduth … Quentin King
Kyle Howard … Dave
William Ragsdale … Rob Fields
The Show
Before I decided to review Grosse Pointe I actually had never even heard of the series. I’m not even sure if I would have had the opportunity to watch the show back when it first aired in 2000-2001. It was a show on the WB which, at that time, was only available as part of a ‘premium’ package from my cable provider. Unless it was picked up by a Canadian station (Global would probably have been the most likely candidate), then there was no way for me to have seen the series when it first aired.
As I had not heard of the show, and only had the vaguest of outlines of the premise, I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I first began watching the series. Fortunately my (almost non-existent) expectations were quickly surpassed, and I found the short-lived series to be very entertaining.
Grosse Pointe is about the making of a TV show of the same title. The show within a show, Grosse Pointe is basically a bad, over the top version of your standard teen drama/primetime soap along the lines of Beverly Hills: 90210 and Dawson’s Creek. While most episodes do feature a scene or two from the show within the show – which are usually hilarious – the main focus is on the actors, producers and various crew members involved in the production.
Grosse Pointe spends a lot of time satirizing Hollywood. You’ve got everything from narcissist actors to manipulative, backstabbing stars to network execs who constantly worry about the audience reaction, often overruling the judgment of the writers and producers. The show starts off as a really biting satire. With the exception of the naive new girl, Courtney Scott, initially most of the characters embody various Hollywood stereotypes. While this is funny, it does make it difficult to identify and/or care about many of the characters. As the show goes on, however, the stereotypes are fleshed out and even the most conniving characters have moments of where you can really understand their perspective.
What begins as mainly standalone episodes, multi-episode arcs develop over time, and even a few arcs that probably would have gone on for multiple seasons had the show ever reached that point. These arcs are well conceived, but, regrettably, some of the larger arcs were left completely unresolved due to the series’ cancellation after 17 episodes.
The Episodes
Disc One
“Pilot” A new character is added to the show within a show, Grosse Pointe. This new addition to the cast, Courtney Scott, will be the primary focus of the series for its first few episodes.
“Thieves Like Us” Hunter is caught shoplifting again. Also, she’s jealous of the attention being lavished on Courtney, so she engineers a plot to have the new girl fired.
“Prelude to a Kiss” Hunter worries about the fact that Courtney’s character, Laura, gets a kiss with Quentin’s character, Stone (who is the boyfriend of Hunter’s character, Becky). Marcy’s attempt to get closer to Johnny goes awry.
“Devil in a Blue Dress” In probably the only episode that really highlights when the series was made, Hunter is up for the part of Monica Lewinsky in the Oliver Stone movie, Lewinsky. The role requires her to put on forty pounds and she decides to put on as much weight as possible before her screen test. Wackiness ensues.
“Halloween” While filming a supernatural-themed dream episode of Grosse Pointe Marcy is injured. In recuperation, she resolves to get over her crush on Johnny and throws herself at a new love interest.
“Mommy Dearest” Hunter uses her sway to land her mother a small part on an episode of Grosse Pointe. After her mother manipulates her way in to a larger role ,however, Hunter is less than thrilled. Johnny and Courtney compete against Carly Pope and Leslie Bibb from Popular in a WB beach event.
“Sleeping with Enemy” When Hunter’s mom starts sleeping with Quentin, Hunter resolves to do something about it. Johnny’s excited about his upcoming movie premiere. Said movie also stars Ted Danson as a talking dog to give you an idea of the quality level.
“Satisfaction” A new executive producer (for the show within the show) is brought in and she is determined to spice things up on Grosse Pointe. Among other things, her script calls for Marcy’s character, Kim, to have her first orgasm, which sends Marcy on a quest for her own first orgasm.
“Boys on the Side” Courtney’s boyfriend is in town to visit Courtney and sell trophies, though not necessarily in that order. Also, Johnny reluctantly goes on a date with the winner of a teen essay contest and Dave supplements his stand-in gig by becoming Hunter’s assistant.
Disc Two
“Puppet Master” An ex-boyfriend of Hunter’s is brought in as a guest director, and it seems he has a thing for Courtney, much to Hunter’s dismay. Quentin is determined to hook Rob up with a new girl after a break-up. Wackiness ensues.
“Star Wars” Hunter, annoyed at Quentin’s teasing, has a restraining order filed against him. A guest star is determined to add Marcy to his list of conquests. Also, Courtney is hired to do a Japanese beer commercial for guest star, George Takei!
“Bare Naked in America” Thanks to a bitter ex, Courtney finds nude photos of herself turning up in the latest issue of ‘Play Pen’. Quentin steals the story of Johnny’s similar experience to try to ‘comfort’ Courtney. Dave’s plans to woo Marcy give Hunter the wrong idea.
“Secrets and Lies” Hunter insists that Dave keep their new relationship a secret. After meeting a new guy at a Jewish telethon, Marcy decides she should take a more active approach in promoting her religion. Johnny is annoyed by Courtney constantly insulting his intelligence.
“End of The Affair” Dave tries to figure out a way to break up with Hunter without losing his job as a stand-in. Johnny looks for help with a scene which requires him to cry. A misunderstanding has Rob queasy about his date with guest star, Kristin Davis.
“Opposite of Sex” Quentin is forced into going to Sex Addicts Anonymous where he meets, and is mentored by, Jason Priestly. An audience poll about Kim’s coma puts Marcy’s future with Grosse Pointe in danger. Also, Johnny tries to get the cast to sign off on a pinball game based on the show.
“Passion Fish” After her new friend Sarah Michelle Gellar agrees to guest star on Grosse Pointe under certain stipulations, Marcy wonders if SMG’s interest is more than professional. When nobody notices Quentin hits an old lady with his car, he becomes a hero for taking her to the hospital.
“My Best Friend’s Wedding” Hunter, after a night of partying, gets engaged to Dweezil Zappa, leaving Marcy two days to plan the wedding. Dave shares an on-screen kiss with Marcy, leading Marcy to question her feelings for Dave. Elizabeth Berkley is enlisted as a celebrity bridesmaid.
The Video
Everything looks clear and clean. There’s a sickly orange filter on the scenes from the show within a show, but that’s part of said show’s lighting and presentation.
The Audio
The show is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. It’s a sitcom, so there’s nothing really special going on audio-wise, but everything sounds fine.
Special Features
Commentaries
We get commentaries on four episodes (“Pilot”, “Devil in a Blue Dress”, “Satisfaction” and “Secrets and Lies”). The first commentary, “Pilot”, features only series creator, writer and executive producer, Darren Star and, as such, is a bit on the weak side. No offense to Darren Star, there simply aren’t very many people who can do a really good solo commentary. The other three commentaries include a second person, writer and executive producer, Robin Schiff, which helps make them far more informative and entertaining.
It’s a bit odd that none of the stars were brought in for the commentaries. According to IMDB, a good number of them don’t have much else going on and Darren Star even makes a point to mention that Bonnie Somerville (who plays Courtney Scott) was working with him on Kitchen Confidential at the time the commentaries were made. It also would have been nice to have had a track for “My Best’s Friend’s Wedding” to give a bit more closure to the series, but the commentaries we do get are still pretty good.
Interviews
We get a twenty minute interview with creator, Darren Star as he reminisces about the show. There’s not much here that isn’t mentioned in one of the four commentaries, but the clips interspersed throughout the interview to illustrate Darren’s points work pretty well, and help make for an entertaining piece, even if you’re not necessarily going to learn a lot from it.
Previews
Previews for 80s Hits (basically a montage of short previews for 80s movies (Ghost Busters, Karate Kid, Stand by Me, etc.) stitched together to make a three minute preview), Dawson’s Creek, Newsradio, TV Action Favorites (same as 80s hits but with shows like Charlie’s Angels and S.W.A.T.) and The King of Queens.
The Inside Pulse
While the cancellation leaves some major plots elements completely unresolved, Grosse Pointe is a very funny show with some great satire of teen dramas and Hollywood in general. Definitely worth checking out.
