ABC’s Cupid reboot is perfectly okay enough that I think some people will like it, but it’s certainly not groundbreaking entertainment. For a variety of reasons, of course, one of which being the fact that this has already been done before, almost word for word, about 11 years ago, when Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshall were Cupid and Claire, respectively.
In this iteration, however, Bobby Cannavale is playing the Cupid (given name: Trevor Pierce) to Sarah Paulson’s Dr. Claire McRae. Trevor believes that A) he is Cupid and B) he was put on Earth as a punishment; in order to get back home he must match 100 couples in love. It’s a built in plan to get them to the magical 100 episode mark needed for syndication, but early signs don’t bode well for the series. Cannavale is charismatic enough, but he doesn’t have the quick wit of Jeremy Piven, and the two leads don’t share the chemistry of the old version.
I will say, however, that there is potential for this series to grow, and I honestly hope that it can. Cannavale is likeable, Sarah Paulson is likeable, and everyone loves Camille Guaty and Rick Gomez. One reason to tune is to see if they can shake out all of the problems, quickly, and become a really solid show to compete in a time slot against NBC’s SVU and CBS’ Without a Trace. After all, if there’s one thing this show has going for it, it’s the mind behind it, and that’s Rob Thomas. One of my favorite showrunners, I’ll tune into additional episodes to, if anything, support him!
Check out the premiere tonight on ABC, and let us know what you think!
CUPID – “Cupid” stars Bobby Cannavale as Trevor, Sarah Paulson as Claire, Rick Gomez as Felix and Camille Guaty as Lita.
Photo: ABC/BOB D’AMICO
