UrbanWire

There's this new foreign drama called Everwood that's been showing for the past few months on Ch 5. Never heard of it? Well, given that it's stuck in the 6 pm timeslot on Sun, (programming speak for The Twilight Zone), UrbanWire isn't that surprised. To top it all off, every time Cheryl Fox and her brainy game show participants make an appearance, Everwood gets the heave-ho and a generic movie-of-the-week is broadcast in its place instead.

So, even though the show's been on-air since Oct, not too many episodes have been shown and you still have time to play catch up.

Andy Brown (Treat Williams) is an uber-successful New York brain surgeon who often prioritises his work over family, causing his son Ephram (Gregory Smith) to resent him deeply. One fateful day, he fails to fetch his wife to his son's all-important piano recital due to work commitments (again), and Mrs Brown is killed in a car accident on her way there. This, shatters Andy completely and suddenly, he has an epiphany.

He quits his lucrative job and hauls his estranged son and cute daughter, Delia (Vivien Cardone) to live in the fictional small town of Everwood, Colorado, where he sets up his own private practice, giving patients free treatment. All these take place roughly in the show's opening 10 minutes, effectively establishing the premise of how the Brown family settle down in nowhere ville to cope with the crippling loss of a loved one.

With its quaint small town setting (in the 2nd episode, the locals celebrate Fall Thaw, a weather anomaly which causes a week of warm temperatures in their otherwise nippy autumn) and central story of the relationship between a dad and son, Everwood reminds viewers of another Warner Bros production Gilmore Girls, which it is not.

Consider this: in 1 of the scenes, the 2 get into an intense fight over their move to Everwood, and egged on by his father, Ephram blurts out heatedly, "I wish you died instead of her!" Andy counters, "Well, I wish I did too, you little bastard!" Somehow, Gilmore Girls hasn't quite the emotional punch that Everwood packs.

That scene, and many others (you realise how common father and son spats are) could easily slid into melodrama in the hands of lesser actors, but luckily, producer Greg Berlanti has found in Williams and young Smith 2 talented thespians who possess amazing chemistry. Williams, who before this starred mostly in TV movies such as A Streetcar Named Desire and Where The River Flows North, is stoic and brave as Andy Brown, injecting vulnerability and warmth and making us sympathise with his role as a grieving husband and father.

However, it is Gregory Smith (Small Soldiers), good-looking but not in a typical Abercrombie & Fitch model way, who is the star discovery of the show. As 16-year-old Ephram, he's all teenager-angst-like dealing with various issues and is the most convincing teenager on any drama right now.

The 2 men together make Everwood, such is the power of their emoting.
Of course, the show would be boring without well-written supporting characters. 1 of the quirkiest is Dr Harold Abbott (Tom Amandes), who, as the family doctor to the town people, is severely upset by the arrival of a competitor and shares a humourous love-hate relationship with Andy.

Harold's daughter, Amy (Emily Van Camp), is conveniently the same age as Ephram, and so becomes the requisite love interest for our boy protagonist. She's no Cinderella though, as we find out that she befriends Ephram only because she wants him to persuade Dr Brown to come out of retirement to operate on her comatose boyfriend.

Well-cast funny characters and a plot wrought with emotions in parts, sometimes both together, Everwood is the show 7th Heaven failed to be.