A Show That Loves Too Much

By James Poniewozik

You have to love second-time lovers Lily Manning and Rick Sammler, cursed with time deficits, blessed with complementary beauty--she is flush with earthy warmth, he, all icy-eyed angles. Through their fugitive courtship--making out in back seats and living rooms in rare moments without the kids--you thrill with them. When Lily moans, "I've got two kids. How can I take my clothes off?," you want to buy her a drink. Once and Again has the makings of a feel-good hit. What it lacks is the complexity and daring of Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz's best work.

You can count on the duo for literate scripts, and they deliver, putting even this season's overused direct-camera-address device to thoughtful (if a bit precious) use. But to realize the show's potential, the creators must end the honeymoon--between the viewers and the characters. thirtysomething's strength lay in its shifting sympathies for the self-absorbed Steadmans, whom we stuck with through sheer exasperation. You have to love Once and Again; it will be a great show only if it gets us to do so in spite of ourselves.

--James Poniewozik