This Tuesday, Cupid premiered on ABC. It's a recreation of a series that was on ABC in the 1990's. Both are about a man who says he's Cupid, the god of love, and that he has to get 100 couples (that's 200 people) who are soul mates to find true love with one another.
The original Cupid was a good show. It starred Jeremy Piven as Cupid and I remember certain episodes very vividly. For example, in one show, Cupid/Piven figured out that a beautiful woman with a sucky (& handsome) boyfriend had found her true love... but the guy wasn't her boyfriend, it was an unattractive nerd. At the point he gave up because he said beautiful people always date other beautiful people, never people who were less attractive than they were.
The original Cupid asked serious questions about love and put them in a context of a dramady (even though dramadies didn't actually exist back then). The new Cupid is more overtly about romantic comedy. It opens with the current Cupid (played this time around by Bobby Cannavale) helping this guy named Dylan change the New Year's Eve sign to read "Holly I'm here." You see, Dylan met Holly for 20 minutes in Dublin and fell in love with her right away; but she had to fly back to New York. So Dylan has now flown to New York and is trying to find her.
Anyway, Cupid/Cannavale is arrested for this stunt, and because everyone thinks he's crazy, he falls under the care of psychiatrist Claire. Her specialty just happens to be relationships, although she doesn't seem to believe in love too much, so why is she counciling people about their relationships?
After a few months, Cupid is released from the funny farm and returns to his job at a bar called Tres Equis. Claire still has to keep an eye on him, though, so she tells him to show up at her singles group therapy sessions (letting someone who claims he needs to get 100 couples together to visit a singles group? Is she crazy?). Cupid uses this opportunity to promote Tres Equis as the hot new singles bar, and to spread the word that Dylan is still looking for Holly.
After group therapy, the whole gang goes down to Tres Equis for mariachi karaoke (note to all you guys out there: mariachis are always full of win). Dylan and a repressed reporter chick sing a duet; and after 2 days together, as she writes a story on his search for Holly, they fall in love. But then Dylan meets Holly (!). Which woman will he choose???
This show was pretty good. It was more lighthearted than the previous one, but that's fine. I definitely got my warm fuzzies at the end, so that was nice. There is a mysterious part of the show where Cupid doesn't remember Psyche (if you aren't familiar with this myth, look here). Is the psychiatrist Claire Cupid's Psyche? Does he not remember Psyche because he's not really Cupid? Questions.
If you like romcoms, I'd definitely recommend you checking this show out. It has quirky characters, storylines full of charm, and yet it isn't too cheesy or cliched (it is a little bit, but that goes with the territory). The first Cupid was absolutely great, so this one is certainly starting out with promising material.
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