Watching Ellie

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is at the top of her game. Her expressions, physicality and timing are right on the mark. Her vocals are a treat and flow naturally from the story. [14 Apr 2003]

Sucking up to standard sitcom conventions doesn't necessarily hurt, or help, the show. It's still funnier than most of this season's newcomers but not worth running home to - or even telling a friend about. [15 Apr 2003]

If the material were better, she wouldn't have to mug and grimace and cavort so strenuously; push wouldn't have to keep coming to shove. ... It's an in-your-face affair, and after a while, your face gets tired. [15 Apr 2003]

Despite the dependably daft charms of Julia Louis-Dreyfus, all the tinkering that's been done to "Watching Ellie" may leave you feeling like something funny has been lost. [15 Apr 2003]

The change of format doesn't bring with it any sense of assurance. To amp up the canned laughter while simultaneously lowering the intelligence level of the humor isn't a recipe for success. [14 Apr 2003]

Dreyfus... seems to be laboring to turn a so-so show into the I Love Lucy of the 21st century.

Unfortunately, what hasn't changed is that this comedy about the life of a neurotic nightclub singer simply isn't very funny. [14 Apr 2004]

Louis-Dreyfus, the performer, is not the problem here, and neither is the format. The problem is the material. [15 Apr 2003]

Everything that made the original series distinctive, if not actually entertaining, has been ditched. ... The changes haven't made the dreary show... any funnier, just more conventional. [15 Apr 2003]

"Ellie" has gone from being an avant-garde failure to a very average failure. [15 Apr 2003]

Maybe Elaine, Ms. Louis-Dreyfus's character on Seinfeld, could have gotten away with some of this. But Elaine's outrageousness was in the context of a circle of equally callous, self-involved, slightly amoral friends.

"Watching Ellie" isn't a total disaster. Louis-Dreyfus sings really well. [15 Apr 2003]

Another not-very-funny sitcom in which the star weekly places herself in humiliating situations while the audience sits around and waits for her to extricate herself. [14 Apr 2003]

Louis-Dreyfus has either decided, or been convinced, that the way to save Ellie is to barrel her way through every scene, mugging and pushing so forcefully that she makes Michael Richards look subtle. She's not just in constant motion; she seems to be in a state of constant rage. Even her singing, which was never the show's strong point, has become grating and strained. [15 Apr 2003]

"Watching Ellie" is a mess of cliches and lots of straining for chuckles. Louis-Dreyfus makes it look like a huge effort, which is all the more obvious because her Elaine on "Seinfeld" was seamlessly amusing. [15 Apr 2003]

None of the characters in "Watching Ellie" are particularly likable, especially Ellie herself. [15 Apr 2003]

It's not so stylish or energetic anymore, and it's still not particularly funny. ... The problem isn't just rim-shot jokes, though. It's the whole conception of this comedy's situation, which is riddled with illogic and overstocked with annoying characters. [15 Apr 2003]

Dracula returned without his soul. That's true of Watching Ellie, as well, if you accept that humor is the soul of a sitcom and that the show had any humor the first time around. It did. At least a little. This time, Watching Ellie wastes some serious comic talent, of which Louis-Dreyfus is just the most notable. [15 Apr 2003]

While Louis-Dreyfus' Elaine Benes was vapid and self-centered, which worked within "Seinfeld's" fractured framework, her Ellie Riggs' self-centered vapidity is off-putting. [15 Apr 2003]

What began as a demonstration of good actors adventurously struggling with a badly written script has been revamped into a demonstration of good actors desperately struggling with a badly written script, with a chortling studio audience thrown in for good measure. [14 Apr 2003]