Post by Ivory on Sept 29, 2004 9:04:47 GMT -5
I feel like whenever a fine man appears on TV, it's my duty to share it with the world, make the world a lovelier place, you know.
Taye Diggs
..... of "Stella Got Her Groove Back" and "The Wood" fame is starring in a new series tonight on UPN. It's getting pretty good reviews.........
In 'Hill,' Diggs proves to be a charming father figure
By Matthew Gilbert, Globe Staff | September 29, 2004
It's debatable whether TV really needs another lawyer series in the manner of "Ally McBeal." It's not debatable, however, whether TV needs Taye Diggs, an immensely likable actor with small-screen presence to spare. He's the kind of performer who can take a terribly contrived vehicle like UPN's "Kevin Hill" and make it not only bearable but enjoyable. The road to success is littered with more sophisticated actors who haven't been able to rise above rickety TV material.
In the series, which premieres tonight at 9 on UPN, Diggs is a playboy attorney much like the one he played on "Ally McBeal," with come-on lines as silky smooth as his ties. When Kevin Hill is not making love to a different woman every night, he's making more money for rich people. Enter the baby, Sarah, who has been left to him by a recently deceased cousin. She's a tiny package who's about to cramp his bachelor style in a big way.
As happens only in sloppy TV pilots, fatherhood humanizes Kevin overnight, and suddenly he's walking away from his high-stakes law office to join a boutique firm run entirely by women. Now this cool heartbreaker is openly goo-goo-ga-ga-ing over the office phone and fielding calls from his sardonic gay nanny (the humorous Patrick Breen). He's even filled his apartment with baby bottles instead of beer bottles, to the chagrin of his buddies.
At the new job, his emotional growth is accelerated by partner Jessie Grey (Michael Michele), a single mother who sympathizes with his pressures. With its all-woman law firm, the show is built to highlight its hero's evolution from womanizer to woman lover. Kevin also faces new professional influences, including a quirky lawyer who tells a room of people to shut up with Biscuit-like abruptness. "A lot of useless talk makes my neck itch," she says, as the spirit of David E. Kelley takes a bow.
But the show is more about Kevin's changing masculinity than it is about zany legal escapades and hot-button cases, such as tonight's assault trial. Diggs and his bright smile make Kevin's conversions easy to swallow, as he moves from player to player of Chutes and Ladders.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com.
© Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
www.upn.com/shows/kevin_hill/index.shtml
So y'all watch and then report back here!!!!
Taye Diggs ..... of "Stella Got Her Groove Back" and "The Wood" fame is starring in a new series tonight on UPN. It's getting pretty good reviews.........
In 'Hill,' Diggs proves to be a charming father figure
By Matthew Gilbert, Globe Staff | September 29, 2004
It's debatable whether TV really needs another lawyer series in the manner of "Ally McBeal." It's not debatable, however, whether TV needs Taye Diggs, an immensely likable actor with small-screen presence to spare. He's the kind of performer who can take a terribly contrived vehicle like UPN's "Kevin Hill" and make it not only bearable but enjoyable. The road to success is littered with more sophisticated actors who haven't been able to rise above rickety TV material.
In the series, which premieres tonight at 9 on UPN, Diggs is a playboy attorney much like the one he played on "Ally McBeal," with come-on lines as silky smooth as his ties. When Kevin Hill is not making love to a different woman every night, he's making more money for rich people. Enter the baby, Sarah, who has been left to him by a recently deceased cousin. She's a tiny package who's about to cramp his bachelor style in a big way.
As happens only in sloppy TV pilots, fatherhood humanizes Kevin overnight, and suddenly he's walking away from his high-stakes law office to join a boutique firm run entirely by women. Now this cool heartbreaker is openly goo-goo-ga-ga-ing over the office phone and fielding calls from his sardonic gay nanny (the humorous Patrick Breen). He's even filled his apartment with baby bottles instead of beer bottles, to the chagrin of his buddies.
At the new job, his emotional growth is accelerated by partner Jessie Grey (Michael Michele), a single mother who sympathizes with his pressures. With its all-woman law firm, the show is built to highlight its hero's evolution from womanizer to woman lover. Kevin also faces new professional influences, including a quirky lawyer who tells a room of people to shut up with Biscuit-like abruptness. "A lot of useless talk makes my neck itch," she says, as the spirit of David E. Kelley takes a bow.
But the show is more about Kevin's changing masculinity than it is about zany legal escapades and hot-button cases, such as tonight's assault trial. Diggs and his bright smile make Kevin's conversions easy to swallow, as he moves from player to player of Chutes and Ladders.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com.
© Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
www.upn.com/shows/kevin_hill/index.shtml
So y'all watch and then report back here!!!!
