Carrie Fairchild
Telly Talk Dream Maker
What are your thoughts and memories of this show? I never saw Loving (although it was aired in Ireland on Sky) but I was attracted to The City because of Morgan Fairchild. I'd seen bits and pieces of it before but I've now finally managed to watch the first week of episodes and have gotten an idea of the thrust of the premise. And I've mixed feelings. In terms of appearance, the show looks great. There's lots of location shooting around New York which is such a change from the typically set bound soaps of the time. The editing is fast and the scenes are short, which again is a change from the usual snails pace of some of its 90's counterparts. The cast are mostly great and there's a lot of familiar soap faces floating around. On the downside, not much happened in the first week in regard to a solid storyline emerging. I understand time needs to be taken to establish characters but it reminded me of a producer's criticism of British flop Eldorado where she said there was no storyline, just a series of unconnected incidents. There were a lot of incidents in the first week of The City but closing out the week, the only storylines rearing their heads were a couple of potential romances, the bar owner butting heads with local mobsters over who'd collect his garbage and the hint of a shared past between Sydney and Nick. Was there a lot of carryover in terms of storylines from Loving? I didn't realise until I read up on it that 10 characters crossed over. I found the fifth episode kind of funny where they wheeled out a few random celebrities to add some glamour to Sydney's party including Marilyn McCoo and Robin from Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.