Inconceivable
Y
SepT 22, 2005
10-11 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 23
NBC
The title pretty much tells the story of this not-so-immaculate conception from the stables of Touchstone TV and Tollin/Robbins Prods. "Inconceivable" is a misconceived sudser set in a fertility clinic where the staffers are all improbably fetching and anything that can possibly go wrong does. It's NBC's 10 p.m. Friday attempt to compete with ABC's "20/20" with an hour that might be better titled "Firing Blanks." The inherent melodrama has some absorbing moments, but they're undercut by overheated dialogue and story lines that invariably bite off more than they can easily chew early on. It tries to be funny, sexy, poignant, hip, wise and profound in the space of 48 minutes, clearly aiming for something highly derivative and yet daringly original. The odds of success appear long.
What is instantly annoying about the show is how stridently self-assured the principals are. This isn't typically the way it works in real life, where even professionals are dogged by some surface doubt and insecurity. Not so Rachel Lu (Ming-Na of "ER"), therapist and co-founder of the Family Options Fertility Clinic, who tends to lead with her Type-A bluster. She's given a run for her brassy money by Dr. Malcolm Bowers ("Empire's" Jonathan Cake), a swaggering, filthy rich, medically gifted, sex-mad dude who looks and acts as if he just stepped off the set of FX's "Nip/Tuck." The third member of the team, Dr. Nora Campbell ("Law & Order's" Angie Harmon), is a confirmed rebel and a former flame, naturally, of Bowers. (Harmon was added to the reshot pilot after Alfre Woodard fled the show after two episodes to join the "Desperate Housewives" ladies on Wisteria Lane as a new regular.)
So anyway, co-creators and executive producers Oliver Goldstick and Marco Pennette -- each of whom, we're told, had children through surrogates in real life -- pen the first pair of episodes supplied for review. It's obvious from the get-go that the pair want their show to be seen as sensational and controversial (that is, if it's seen at all). They stack the pilot with a potential malpractice suit, a dead soldier's frozen embryos, sperm swapping (as revenge!), infant racial issues, gay parenting and adoption ethics. If you don't already have anxiety overload when you go to work or submit to a procedure at this place, you will for sure by the time you check out. There's one employee (Mary Catherine Garrison) who wants to adopt the wrong-race kid and another who seeks payback after being dumped by a skirt-chasing semenologist (that's probably not a word).
It's more of the same in the second installment, with all variety of staff clashing and superficial interaction to go with the artificial insemination. The ruminations over moral and legal bugaboos in the fertility field come across in "Inconceivable" as stilted, and the couples seeking kids all seem rather the same, aside from the woman who doesn't want to use her own eggs to try to get pregnant because she fears the offspring will be ugly and so pops oral contraceptives when no one's looking.
The real question here is: and then what? It's hard to foresee how many permutations of conception-challenged couples are possible before the stories all begin to feel rehashed. "Inconceivable" will need to sink or swim on the strength of its personalities, and while Ming-Na, Cake and Harmon make for a strong threesome, none are terribly likable. That's not necessarily a fatal flaw, but it also probably won't much help a show already suffering early believability issues.
INCONCEIVABLE
NBC
Touchstone Television in association with Tollin/Robbins Prods.
Credits:
Executive producers: Mike Tollin, Brian Robbins, Joe Davola, Marco Pennette, Oliver Goldstick
Co-executive producers: Alice West, Chris Long, Allison Cross
Producers: Patrick McKee, Shawn Schepps, Peter Parnell, Drew Greenberg
Supervising producer: Joan Binder Weiss
Consulting producer: Donald Todd
Associate producer: Maureen Milligan
Directors: Jonathan Kaplan, Chris Long
Teleplay: Oliver Goldstick, Marco Pennette
Directors of photography: Jamie Anderson, David Miller
Production designer: Jaymes Hinkle, Jim Pohl
Costume designers: Pamela Withers-Chilton, Eduardo Castro
Editors: Warren Bowman, Dave Crabtree
Music: Jeff Martin, Mozella
Sound mixers: Jerry "Jay" Smith, James Thornton
Casting: Samdi Logan, Robert J. Ulrich, Eric Dawson, Carol Kritzer
Cast:
Rachel Lu: Ming-Na
Dr. Malcolm Bowers: Jonathan Cake
Dr. Nora Campbell: Angie Harmon
Lydia: Alfre Woodard
Marissa: Mary Catherine Garrison
Scott: David Norona
Patrice: Joelle Carter
Angel Hernandez: Reynaldo Rosales
Friday, Sept. 23
NBC
The title pretty much tells the story of this not-so-immaculate conception from the stables of Touchstone TV and Tollin/Robbins Prods. "Inconceivable" is a misconceived sudser set in a fertility clinic where the staffers are all improbably fetching and anything that can possibly go wrong does. It's NBC's 10 p.m. Friday attempt to compete with ABC's "20/20" with an hour that might be better titled "Firing Blanks." The inherent melodrama has some absorbing moments, but they're undercut by overheated dialogue and story lines that invariably bite off more than they can easily chew early on. It tries to be funny, sexy, poignant, hip, wise and profound in the space of 48 minutes, clearly aiming for something highly derivative and yet daringly original. The odds of success appear long.
What is instantly annoying about the show is how stridently self-assured the principals are. This isn't typically the way it works in real life, where even professionals are dogged by some surface doubt and insecurity. Not so Rachel Lu (Ming-Na of "ER"), therapist and co-founder of the Family Options Fertility Clinic, who tends to lead with her Type-A bluster. She's given a run for her brassy money by Dr. Malcolm Bowers ("Empire's" Jonathan Cake), a swaggering, filthy rich, medically gifted, sex-mad dude who looks and acts as if he just stepped off the set of FX's "Nip/Tuck." The third member of the team, Dr. Nora Campbell ("Law & Order's" Angie Harmon), is a confirmed rebel and a former flame, naturally, of Bowers. (Harmon was added to the reshot pilot after Alfre Woodard fled the show after two episodes to join the "Desperate Housewives" ladies on Wisteria Lane as a new regular.)
So anyway, co-creators and executive producers Oliver Goldstick and Marco Pennette -- each of whom, we're told, had children through surrogates in real life -- pen the first pair of episodes supplied for review. It's obvious from the get-go that the pair want their show to be seen as sensational and controversial (that is, if it's seen at all). They stack the pilot with a potential malpractice suit, a dead soldier's frozen embryos, sperm swapping (as revenge!), infant racial issues, gay parenting and adoption ethics. If you don't already have anxiety overload when you go to work or submit to a procedure at this place, you will for sure by the time you check out. There's one employee (Mary Catherine Garrison) who wants to adopt the wrong-race kid and another who seeks payback after being dumped by a skirt-chasing semenologist (that's probably not a word).
It's more of the same in the second installment, with all variety of staff clashing and superficial interaction to go with the artificial insemination. The ruminations over moral and legal bugaboos in the fertility field come across in "Inconceivable" as stilted, and the couples seeking kids all seem rather the same, aside from the woman who doesn't want to use her own eggs to try to get pregnant because she fears the offspring will be ugly and so pops oral contraceptives when no one's looking.
The real question here is: and then what? It's hard to foresee how many permutations of conception-challenged couples are possible before the stories all begin to feel rehashed. "Inconceivable" will need to sink or swim on the strength of its personalities, and while Ming-Na, Cake and Harmon make for a strong threesome, none are terribly likable. That's not necessarily a fatal flaw, but it also probably won't much help a show already suffering early believability issues.
INCONCEIVABLE
NBC
Touchstone Television in association with Tollin/Robbins Prods.
Credits:
Executive producers: Mike Tollin, Brian Robbins, Joe Davola, Marco Pennette, Oliver Goldstick
Co-executive producers: Alice West, Chris Long, Allison Cross
Producers: Patrick McKee, Shawn Schepps, Peter Parnell, Drew Greenberg
Supervising producer: Joan Binder Weiss
Consulting producer: Donald Todd
Associate producer: Maureen Milligan
Directors: Jonathan Kaplan, Chris Long
Teleplay: Oliver Goldstick, Marco Pennette
Directors of photography: Jamie Anderson, David Miller
Production designer: Jaymes Hinkle, Jim Pohl
Costume designers: Pamela Withers-Chilton, Eduardo Castro
Editors: Warren Bowman, Dave Crabtree
Music: Jeff Martin, Mozella
Sound mixers: Jerry "Jay" Smith, James Thornton
Casting: Samdi Logan, Robert J. Ulrich, Eric Dawson, Carol Kritzer
Cast:
Rachel Lu: Ming-Na
Dr. Malcolm Bowers: Jonathan Cake
Dr. Nora Campbell: Angie Harmon
Lydia: Alfre Woodard
Marissa: Mary Catherine Garrison
Scott: David Norona
Patrice: Joelle Carter
Angel Hernandez: Reynaldo Rosales
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