Watching Ellie

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]