The show was based on the smash hit, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, starring writer/actress Nia Vardalos as a young gal who's looking to get out from under the confining traditional role her Greek culture (via her family) puts her in. To her family, her goal in life is to meet a Greek guy, marry him, and have a bunch of kids. She has her own ideas and thinks modern day America allows her the freedom to be all she can be (without joining the army of course). In the movie, she meets a great guy, they fall in love and get married, even though he's not Greek. Most of the humor comes from the culture clash inherent in a woman from a tightly knit group hooking up with an outsider. Is that enough to carry an ongoing television series? Apparently not since it only lasted seven half hour episodes. The biggest problem the series had, casting aside Hollywood rumors of interpersonal conflict with lead actress Nia (most of the performers from the movie participated in the series as well), was that the writers managed to take something that was moderately unique and interesting and reduce it to its lowest common denominator. Each episode was so generic that it could've been written for any ethnic group with virtually no changes. By killing its distinctiveness, the entire flavor that made the movie fun to watch was gone. Here's a short description of the episodes:

Episode One: The House Gift: February 24, 2003: The newlyweds come back from vacationing and are met by the entire clan at the airport. Some initial hope that the series would retain a bit of the magic that made the movie a pleasure was quickly dashed by the weak writing. The show also had Gus, Nia's father, giving them a house (which happened in the last part of the movie but was too rich a source of material for the writers to pass up). This was the only episode crediting Nia as a writer and it was, by far, the strongest episode of the bunch.

Episode Two: The Empire Strikes Back: March 2, 2003: Nia convinces her parents to make a will, something almost unheard of in their minds since it would imply that the family would quickly abandon their values when the parents were gone. When Nia becomes the biggest beneficiary, her siblings prove her right.

Episode Three: Ariana: March 9, 2003: Nia's cousin comes to town from Greece and Nia advises her in how things work in America. Of course she runs with the idea and soon Nia finds herself in the doghouse as her advice is contrary to what a good Greek gal should be giving.

Episode Four: The Free Lunch: March 16, 2003: Nia screws up a deal her father has with a local cop and soon finds out that you can't fight city hall. By taking a stand on principle over "the ways things are done", she ends up caught between her two worlds once more.

Episode Five: The Big Night: March 30, 2003: Thomas, Nia's husband, tells a white lie to Gus and soon learns to regret it. As he feels forced to expand his web of deceit rather than lose face, he finds out that he's in way over his head.

Episode Six: Nick Moves Out: April 6, 2003: Nick, Nia's brother, becomes the butt of everyone's jokes for living at home (heck, he had it pretty good and I'd have stayed at home for such a good deal) so he gets his own place. Maria, Nia's mother, turns her attention to everyone else in order to keep busy and they soon find that the status quo was a better idea all along.

Episode Seven: Greek Easter: April 13, 2003: Nia begs and pleads to prepare the Easter feast for the extended family, something none of them wants to let her do. In order to make it a special event, she invites an old family friend of her father's, not knowing the two hate each other over a silly little matter that took place years ago.

I think Nia would've been a better choice as writer, since she has some familiarity with the differences between the two cultures and this was the first major problem of the television series. The writers they used probably thought they were clever in re-using jokes that were usually older than I am (and I'm no spring chicken) and the show suffered as a result. Rather than the slower pace of a feature film, one where some time could be used to build up to a joke, they felt the need to throw out as many jokes as possible and hope that some worked. This type of humor can work, but it sure didn't here (in stark contrast to the movie, the series followed sit-com formulas that date back decades rather than move ahead with intelligent humor).

The acting was weaker than the movie as well, with the cast floundering about on the weaker material in most cases. The loss of John Corbett (he had other commitments so he didn't end up in the series) to Steve Eckholdt as the husband pretty much assured the show would flop, although I'd have given it at least ten episodes had I been asked when it originally came out. For all these faults and more, I have to say that this is one show that I'd rate squarely as a Skip It. Fans of the movie will be disappointed that the material was vastly different than the movie and there really wasn't any spark between the two leads to sustain it beyond a few episodes (had the writing been better at least) so even a fan of Ms. Vardalos such as myself finds it painful to watch this one.

Picture: The picture was presented in the original 1.33:1 ratio full frame color as it originally aired earlier this year. There were some compression artifacts but otherwise it looked good. The colors were accurate, the clarity solid and it looked as flatly lit as any other recent broadcast television show.

Sound: The audio was presented in 2.0 Dolby Digital stereo English with optional Spanish subtitles and closed captioning for the hearing impaired. For the most part, the sound was also generic with no real separation between the channels to speak of. It was clear enough but no real effort was made to do anything with it.

Extras: some trailers, a paper insert, and a coupon for a $5 rebate if you buy this one and the King Of Queens series too

Final Thoughts: I wanted very much to be able to like this series, having missed it when it first aired on television but there was simply nothing there to like outside of a few chuckles, mostly in the first episode. The cast have all done better elsewhere and it's a shame that a series was made when perhaps a sequel movie might've been a better idea. While this was not the worst television series made from a good movie over the years, it was pretty close to that mark. Pass it up unless you're a major completist of the movie and its cast.