ABC's Charlie's Angels flew onto our screens this fall as the latest in a string of television shows that invoke the trappings of mid-20th century entertainment. While other shows, like ABC's Pan Am, borrow from this era successfully, Charlie's Angels uses '70s culture less aptly. In the case of Angels, someone has to stand up and say, "Enough is enough."
Because the successful 2000 movie franchise based on the 70s TV show, Charlie's Angels has become a part of the new millennium's entertainment lexicon. For the uninitiated, Angels follows three femme fatales as they fight crime and break all of the rules. Beautiful, but deadly, the trio works for the enigmatic Charlie, who it has never actually met. The new Charlie's Angels has all of the flair of the 1976 original. There are gadgets that could only have been dreamt up by people who had not yet seen the advent of Internet technology. The groovy music and colorful scene transitions emphasize that the new Angels is more of a tribute than a remake; unfortunately, their deference to the original hampers the new show's ability to fly on its own.
I initially attributed my lack of excitement to the two-dimensional performances of the female characters. Kate Prince, played by Annie Ilonzeh, is a former Miami police officer with a disregard for the rules. Abby Sampson, played by Rachael Taylor, is a dexterous thief who climbs through windows, up 10-story buildings and down drainpipes. Friday Night Lights' much-loved character Lyla Garrity, otherwise known as Minka Kelly, plays Eve French, a troubled street racer. Despite their sensational background stories, the actresses have not yet managed to build on their written characters. Ironically, all of their performances seem to improve drastically when they are not playing themselves. Their characters seem more realistic when they're using the familiar Angels motif of disguise, undergoing numerous outfit changes to become models, coat check girls and waitresses.
In the first episode, their performances left much to be desired, but Kelly has the potential to become a complex character that we all grow to know and love - a harder, street smart Lyla. In fact, the acting is not the major problem with Charlie's Angels. Ilonzeh and Taylor are not particularly exciting actresses, but looking at shows like 90210 and Gossip Girl, we all know talent rarely plays more than a nominal role in creating a hit teen show. The trouble is that Angels has the clunky writing, improbable gadgets and simple narratives associated with '70s television dramas without the quick-paced action or heightened drama we expect from contemporary shows. The result is painfully jarring. From the first two episodes - and the dismal ratings of the pilot - it seems that little can save the new Angels from purgatory.
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