The Bedford Diaries
Y
March 29, 2006
9-10 p.m.
Wednesday, March 29
WB Network
Sometimes, critics chide WB Network for overdosing on series that are mostly about sex, love and dating with casts chosen as much for their magazine cover potential as their acting talent. Those critics will have a field day with "The Bedford Diaries."
The title is derived from a requirement that the dozen students in the human behavior and sexuality class at Bedford College keep a video diary of their thoughts on that week's topic, such as the way your sexual past influences your future or the difference between love and sex.
Why a video diary? Why a sexuality course in which students are de facto experts who need never study the works of Freud, Kinsey or even Dr. Phil? Because written diaries would be boring on TV and this class, conveniently, is "a forum for revelation and personal exploration." Bedford College is so TV-friendly that the hall door stays open even for a class on drawing a nude figure. Now that's what I call liberal arts. Campus tradition involves re-enacting anti-war protests from the previous generation.
Although more like "Felicity" than "The Paper Chase" in attitude and subject matter, early indications are that the characters in this eight-episode series have neither the depth nor texture of either of those shows.
Penn Badgley, a veteran of WB series "The Mountain" and "Do Over," plays Owen Gregory, a freshman who single-handedly puts the "bed" in "Bedford." He quickly gets the hots for Natalie (Corri English), who is sometimes shunned or teased by others for leaping off a campus building in an unsuccessful suicide attempt. That doesn't faze Owen. "A girl that would jump off a roof, there is something very hot about that kind of crazy," he says. Honest.
Owen's older sister Sarah (Tiffany Dupont) is the student government president and also in the seminar. Other students are Zoe Lopez (Victoria Cartagena), a virgin who overcompensates by feigning a casual attitude toward sex, and Lee Hemingway (Ernest Waddell), who goes steady with a girl he's known since childhood. Then there's Richard Thorne III (Milo Ventimiglia), either the most complicated or inconsistent of the bunch. A recovering alcoholic and editor of the student paper, he can be sensitive at times and an insufferable, arrogant boor at others.
From time to time, the "Bedford" pilot, penned by Julie Martin, transcends the melodrama and its inclination to make everything about hooking up. At these times, it offers some genuinely thoughtful insights and universal truths about the modern sexual experience. Mostly, though, the video diaries are pretentious and as emotionally complex as a greeting card. It's hard to shake the feeling that the most dramatic conflicts concerning the Bedford student body are the discussions with network censors over how much of it can be revealed.
The series replaces "Beauty and the Geek" and will duke it out with ABC's "Lost," Fox's "American Idol" results show and NBC's "Law & Order." Getting a passing grade in that environment will not be easy.
THE BEDFORD DIARIES
WB Network
HBO Independent Prods. in association with the Levinson/Fontana Co. and Warner Bros. Television Production Inc.
Credits:
Executive producers: Barry Levinson, Tom Fontana, Jim Finnerty, Julie Martin
Supervising producer: Irene Burns
Consulting producer: Evangeline Morphos
Creators-writers: Julie Martin, Tom Fontana
Director: Adam Bernstein
Director of photography: Terry Stacey
Production designer: Christopher Nowak
Editor: Ken Eluto
Music: Kevin Kiner
Set decorator: Diane Lederman
Casting: Alexa L. Fogel
Cast:
Professor Jake Macklin: Matthew Modine
Owen Gregory: Penn Badgley
Zoe Lopez: Victoria Cartagena
Sarah Gregory: Tiffany Dupont
Natalie Dykstra: Corri English
Richard Thorne III: Milo Ventimiglia
Lee Hemingway: Ernest Waddell
Dean Harold Harper: Peter Gerety
Professor Carla Bonatelle: Audra McDonald
Wednesday, March 29
WB Network
Sometimes, critics chide WB Network for overdosing on series that are mostly about sex, love and dating with casts chosen as much for their magazine cover potential as their acting talent. Those critics will have a field day with "The Bedford Diaries."
The title is derived from a requirement that the dozen students in the human behavior and sexuality class at Bedford College keep a video diary of their thoughts on that week's topic, such as the way your sexual past influences your future or the difference between love and sex.
Why a video diary? Why a sexuality course in which students are de facto experts who need never study the works of Freud, Kinsey or even Dr. Phil? Because written diaries would be boring on TV and this class, conveniently, is "a forum for revelation and personal exploration." Bedford College is so TV-friendly that the hall door stays open even for a class on drawing a nude figure. Now that's what I call liberal arts. Campus tradition involves re-enacting anti-war protests from the previous generation.
Although more like "Felicity" than "The Paper Chase" in attitude and subject matter, early indications are that the characters in this eight-episode series have neither the depth nor texture of either of those shows.
Penn Badgley, a veteran of WB series "The Mountain" and "Do Over," plays Owen Gregory, a freshman who single-handedly puts the "bed" in "Bedford." He quickly gets the hots for Natalie (Corri English), who is sometimes shunned or teased by others for leaping off a campus building in an unsuccessful suicide attempt. That doesn't faze Owen. "A girl that would jump off a roof, there is something very hot about that kind of crazy," he says. Honest.
Owen's older sister Sarah (Tiffany Dupont) is the student government president and also in the seminar. Other students are Zoe Lopez (Victoria Cartagena), a virgin who overcompensates by feigning a casual attitude toward sex, and Lee Hemingway (Ernest Waddell), who goes steady with a girl he's known since childhood. Then there's Richard Thorne III (Milo Ventimiglia), either the most complicated or inconsistent of the bunch. A recovering alcoholic and editor of the student paper, he can be sensitive at times and an insufferable, arrogant boor at others.
From time to time, the "Bedford" pilot, penned by Julie Martin, transcends the melodrama and its inclination to make everything about hooking up. At these times, it offers some genuinely thoughtful insights and universal truths about the modern sexual experience. Mostly, though, the video diaries are pretentious and as emotionally complex as a greeting card. It's hard to shake the feeling that the most dramatic conflicts concerning the Bedford student body are the discussions with network censors over how much of it can be revealed.
The series replaces "Beauty and the Geek" and will duke it out with ABC's "Lost," Fox's "American Idol" results show and NBC's "Law & Order." Getting a passing grade in that environment will not be easy.
THE BEDFORD DIARIES
WB Network
HBO Independent Prods. in association with the Levinson/Fontana Co. and Warner Bros. Television Production Inc.
Credits:
Executive producers: Barry Levinson, Tom Fontana, Jim Finnerty, Julie Martin
Supervising producer: Irene Burns
Consulting producer: Evangeline Morphos
Creators-writers: Julie Martin, Tom Fontana
Director: Adam Bernstein
Director of photography: Terry Stacey
Production designer: Christopher Nowak
Editor: Ken Eluto
Music: Kevin Kiner
Set decorator: Diane Lederman
Casting: Alexa L. Fogel
Cast:
Professor Jake Macklin: Matthew Modine
Owen Gregory: Penn Badgley
Zoe Lopez: Victoria Cartagena
Sarah Gregory: Tiffany Dupont
Natalie Dykstra: Corri English
Richard Thorne III: Milo Ventimiglia
Lee Hemingway: Ernest Waddell
Dean Harold Harper: Peter Gerety
Professor Carla Bonatelle: Audra McDonald
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