Analeigh Tipton
Jake McDorman
Nicolas Wright
Jade Catta-Preta
Chloe Wepper
Kurt Fuller

Created by:
Jeff Lowell

2014
Comedy
ABC
TV-PG

“Manhattan Love Story” is another romantic-comedy television show that wants to represent the digital age. For example, the female lead, played by Analeigh Tipton, makes a series of blunders with her mobile phone as she attempts to accept a date invitation. Those blunders aren’t even close to being believable, though.

In this show, as evidenced by its first episode, the audience is privy to the two lead characters’ innermost thoughts via voice-over. So, we get the male perspective vs. the female perspective. At the beginning of this episode, the male is focused on breasts while the female is focused on handbags. (Yes, that’s where the writers chose to start.)

Despite its shallow and (at times) stupid material, though, “Manhattan Love Story” aims to have a softer side. It attempts to treat the honesty of its main characters’ unfiltered thoughts with a light touch. However, based on those thoughts, it doesn’t make much sense why the they keep trying to date each other. Yes, they have mutual friends who encourage it, but their unfiltered thoughts suggest that they would be better off elsewhere.

That’s not a major problem, though, because they have additional episodes to flesh things out. Plus, I think that that’s the creative team’s intention: to mimic real relationships that feature people who may not think the best things about each other, yet pursue the relationship for some reason nonetheless. But that intention isn’t executed properly in the first episode.

So what’s the major problem then? The major problem with “Manhattan Love Story” is that its material is as stale as week-old bread. Its jokes about living and working in New York City (Manhattan) are lame and obvious. Plus, I don’t like the lead characters at all. The actors playing those characters, Tipton and Jake McDorman, are likable, though. So, we have likable actors playing unlikable characters. I feel bad for the actors.

There isn’t much here, based on the first episode, to suggest that “Manhattan Love Story” will turn into anything interesting. It’s just so unimaginative. Well, I guess if the writers wake up and start doing their jobs, then the actors are appealing enough to turn it into something watchable. But they can’t write the material themselves.

On Tuesday nights, “Manhattan Love Story” airs after “Selfie.” And based on their first episodes, these two shows are a match made in Hell (or, maybe in Purgatory).

Verdict: Whatever

About: (Source: manhattanlove)

Have you ever wondered what your date was thinking? This romantic comedy exposes the differences between men and women through the unfiltered thoughts, and often contradictory actions, of a new couple who have just begun dating.