Everwood

As pilot episodes go, this one is about as polished as they get. From the main players - Treat Williams, Gregory Smith, Vivien Cardone - to the supporting cast, Everwood crackles with humor, presence and authenticity (even if Alberta stands in for Colorado in the pilot and Utah will do the honors subsequently). [16 Sept 2002, p.E1]

One of the most promising new shows of the season...This is not all heavy drama, however. There's a lot of humor and a lot of great characters. Everwood is not unlike Cicely, Alaska, in "Northern Exposure" -- it's a place where the characters are, well, characters. [14 Sept 2002, p.E08]

Fortunately, the series has enough edge and action and compelling conflict to keep it from getting mired in sap. Berlanti, in fact, has humorously referred to Everwood as "'Our Town' on crack" and he may have something there. [16 Sept 2002, p.D1]

If all of this sounds a tad far-fetched, it is. But the amazing thing is that - among the quaint setting, the particularly endearing cast and exec producer Greg Berlanti's sweet, engaging script, crammed with little surprises - this turns out to be a really pleasant ride. If there is a single new drama this season with multigenerational appeal, this is it. [16 Sept 2002]

Set in snowy Colorado but filmed in serviceable Utah, it's a stick-to-your-ribs hour with mush and syrup served on the side. This might induce a few groans, but Everwood overall finds the fine line between effective sentiment and overdone melodrama. [16 Sept 2002, p.12C]

Yeah, sounds sappy. But it's just the opposite -- a charming mix of rambunctious wit, honest emotion and interesting characters. Lots of smarts and a generous heart. A winner. [16 Sept 2002]

A sound drama that does for father-son relationships what "Gilmore Girls" does for the women of the family. As quirky as it is comfortable. [16 Sept 2002, p.45]

Hipsters will roll their eyes at the show's many cliches - decent small-town folk, cynical city slickers, the healing power of the great outdoors, etc. - but everyone else will be grateful. And fortunately, some of the performances are just odd and striking enough to reduce the sugar quotient. [16 Sept 2002, p.23]

Series star Treat Williams ("Hair," "Prince of the City") is such a fine actor, with so much natural gravity, that he can transcend all but the hokiest writing. And as the opener develops, the writing actually starts to meet him halfway. [16 Sept 2002, p.B18]

Treat Williams has rarely looked as comfortable as he does in Everwood, a promising new drama full of wry touches that has its debut tonight on WB. Now if he would just get rid of that annoying teenage son!

It could turn out to be one of the fall's most enjoyable new series, a nice mix of family drama and light comedy, if the faint air of smug self-righteousness that emanates from tonight's pilot can be extinguished. [16 Sept 2002, p.D-6]

Syrupy at best, this earnest if too-often improbable drama from Northwestern grad Greg Berlanti is designed to mesh with "7th Heaven," but it isn't as family-friendly as promoted if the language and occasional plot point in the opener is any indication. [16 Sept 2002, p.39]

The show can induce cringing when Ephram and Andrew engage in overheated squabbling. The nurse patly explains the problem when talking about another family: "When father and son don't get along, it usually means they have everything in common." ... The plot twists fit together too conveniently, but all the actors do well despite the sticky situations. The show's greatest asset is Smith, who makes the son fascinating. [16 Sept 2002, p.E1]

[A h]ighly implausible if smartly written hour. [16 Sept 2002, p.E1]

Williams is likable even when his character isn't rational.

Some shows are so syrupy, you're afraid the tape will stick in the VCR. Which brings us to Everwood, a tiny Colorado town that time forgot — but that every sappy TV cliché found. Narrator? Check. Ghosts? Check. A town full of twee eccentrics? Check and checkmate.

Long on scenery and even longer on schmaltz. The kids are fine; Gregory Smith is the show's strongest link as complicated, 15-year-old Ephram, and Vivian Cardone ("A Beautiful Mind") is off-the-scale adorable as 9-year-old Delia. But Williams' conversion to small-town doctor seems forced, and so do the quirks of Everwood residents. It's nothing that a prescription for better writing couldn't fix, however. [16 Sept 2002, p.D6]

The problem is the lovely-to-look-at pilot, which unfortunately has a heavy dose of saccharine and corn mixed in. There's a voice-over that makes you think you're about to watch some heartwarming Christmas special, and there's dialogue that strains so much to be moving that it falls flat and stiff.

Doc Brown has his own clashes, particularly with Dr. Abbott (Tom Amandes), the town's sole general practitioner before his arrival. Abbott is a caricature, over-the-top in his arrogance. He does everything short of twirling a mustache to shout, "I'm the bad guy!" This is where "Everwood" hits a bump....With such realism in the relationship between Ephram and his father, it's a shame series creator and writer Greg Berlanti ("Dawson's Creek") went down such a conventional, only-on-TV path in creating this other adversarial relationship. [16 Sept 2002, p.B-1]

Everwood has much going against it, most notably an absence of subtlety that undermines Brown and others. He is so arrogant and smug (with a bedside manner bordering on the smarmy) that he's likable only compared with his conveniently snotty and mean-spirited rival. It's a stretch, by the way, that Abbott would be the only doctor in this rather cosmopolitan hamlet of 9,000 prior to Brown's arrival. [16 Sept 2002, p.C1]

The family faces all of the usual TV problems -- girl trouble, parent trouble, popular-goon-at-school trouble, etc. -- that come with trying to fit in in a new town. And it all looks great, with the snow and mountains and whatnot. But it plays out ... calculated. [16 Sept 2002, p.1E]

The din of familiarity is fairly deafening. Brown's dead wife pops up for posthumous chats with him the way departed loved ones have already done on "Providence" and, more notably, "Six Feet Under." The town is right off a Christmas card -- picturesque and cozy and full of quirky locals. [16 Sept 2002, p.C01]

Yet as a dramatic series, it moves too swiftly through churning waters to be compelling. The conflicts it introduces are good; the rapid resolutions are not. [16 Sept 2002, p.75]

I like Williams as an actor, always have. But he can sink to the level of those around him, and I'm not too sure about the kids in this drama -- Vivien Cardone as his 9-year-old daughter Delia, and Gregory Smith as his 15-year-old son, Ephram. On the other hand, who knows with kids anyway? They could get better in a hurry. The writing also has a tendency to go a bit gooey in the middle. [16 Sept 2002, p.1C]