Arriving on DVD 12/29
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In writer/director Blayne Weaver's utterly charming indie summer sleeper, Tricia O'Kelley plays the titular (albeit soon-to-be-former) weather girl who's as sassy as hell and she's not going to take this anymore.
As we learn in the movie's memorable opener-- she's driven sassy by being forced to be sassy. Likewise, the factors of her restlessness consist of working in an industry where the show's leads are referred to as "anchors" whereas O'Kelley's 35 year old college educated professional Sylvia is still patronizingly described as a "girl" complete with the sexist stereotype of "sassy" being part of her daily on-air introduction that's of course mimicked all over town (you've seen The Weather Man and Groundhog Day). Of course, this isn't helped by being given the thankless and tireless quest to come up with new adjectives for the word "rain" in Seattle while pointing to a green screen sharing-- what Sylvia reveals in her "career suicide" meltdown is not news but "tidbits for dumb people."
Yet, the most pressing reason that has "blacken[ed] all of" her "skies of blue"-- to quote Ella Fitzgerald-- is that she's found the underwear of the perky alcoholic co-anchor Sherry (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Kaitlin Olson) in the condo she's shared with the main anchor, Dale (NCIS star Mark Harmon) for the past two years.
Confronting Dale and Sherry live and on the air of their Seattle morning program where the network affiliate manager Blair Underwood (obviously frantic about FCC violations and viewer complaints for her "R" rated tirade) wants to cut and immediately go to commercial despite the camera crew's decision to keep rolling since this is the stuff of television gold.
Ridiculing not just her position at the station and encouraging viewers to pick up a newspaper but also belittling the "amateurish" sexual technique of Dale-- her on-air blow-up soon becomes a bigger YouTube-like online hit than the Lily Tomlin/David O'Russell back-and-forth exchange (in separate videos) from the set of I Heart Huckabees.
Yet, shortly thereafter, realizing she's given up her job as well as her medical insurance, her condo, and everything else by becoming the laughingstock of the hiring circuit for-- as a friend chides-- her "weather girl" resume, Sylvia quickly seeks shelter by crashing on the couch in the apartment of her younger brother, Walt (Ryan Devlin). And, after lowering her standards, she accepts a job as a waitress for Jane Lynch (effective in a cameo that seems to be a distant and less crazy cousin to the character she played in Role Models).
While some (read: male) critics are easily dismissing the female-centric work-- albeit one crafted by a male writer/director with a knack for clever dialogue-- via that shudder inducing overused description of comparing it to a Lifetime Movie, it's still a highly entertaining feel-great rom-com that benefits considerably from its avoidance of set stereotypes.
For example, as opposed to most Sex and the City knockoffs, Sylvia's two friends (Marin Hinkle and Alex Kapp Horner) are the opposite of supportive, going as far as to set her up with Hinkle's ex on the TV show Two and a Half Men (Jon Cryer) as a man whose biological clock is ticking so hard that he wants to "fast-track" the relationship in a way that makes him-- as Sylvia describes-- "probably the creepiest person on the planet."
While admittedly the film is fairly predictable especially when Sylvia finds herself on the receiving end of the adorable puppy dog crush of Walt's highly articulate, subtly funny and openly flirtatious 29 year old best friend Byron (Patrick J. Adams) which evolves into a "friends with benefits" arrangement with Sylvia's rule that he's not allowed to fall in love with her despite their frequent couplings-- the scenes between Byron and Sylvia are some of the best ones in the film.
However, most likely this is because they may have come from a personal place as the writer/director shared in the production notes that he "got the idea for Weather Girl after dating a woman about five years older than me... The difference in age was minimal... but the pressures she felt professionally, from her friends and from society kept hammering home this idea that 'she didn't have time.' I really liked the idea of this woman who seems to have it all... but then gives it all up and has to start over again with those pressures looming over her."
Moreover, societal pressures and human relationships-- not just romantic ones-- are laced throughout and help make the movie work as Sylvia's estrangement from her friends who blankly tell her that she's cold and puts up emotional walls (which Dale has has used as the reason he's cheated) is so strong that they forget that she even has a brother at one point. And even Walt is given one revealing scene to show our disconnect from one another when he admits that he's worried when she becomes involved with Byron that she'll mess up his one only real friendship.
In fact, the dynamic between the three and the novelty of a strong emotional rollercoaster friendship between a brother and a sister-- instead of two guys just leaning on each other in a "bromance" or women sipping "cosmos"-- make this the opposite of a Lifetime feature. Likewise, it helps elevate the obviously budget-strapped indie (wherein we have to forgive a few "convenient" moments like Sylvia and Byron running into her friends illogically at night on the docks for no reason) in a way that hides its flaws via the thoughtful script and the sheer likability of the cast.
O'Kelley, Adams and Devlin in particular are all wonderful and a special mention must be given to Cryer and Harmon's knack for making what could've been a pretty clear-cut way to tackle each character into something else altogether... so that instead of just one single joke, they get a lot of mileage out of their roles whether it's Cryer's cameo as a Hummer driving baby mama hunter or Harmon's news man diva who sleeps in his makeup towel but feels that he's the victim in his infidelity.
However, to me, the real story was O'Kelley who is a terrific talent and one who energetically tapped into her character and believed so much in the work that she was on board from the start, fighting to help get funding, cast-mates and serving as a producer on the film. Additionally, I truly admired her lack of fear in showing us the flaws of Sylvia's sense of entitlement before she gets a dose of reality and when she ascertains that it's so much better to be a real woman than a "girl" on TV-- even if, unfortunately the beginning of that revelation happens to occur live on-the-air when Sylvia walks out with a pair of pink panties and a whole lot to say.
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The viewer quickly learns that Nick spent his entire childhood suffering because of the family’s grasp on his father, the beloved Dutch George. In fact, Dutch's devotion to the Darlings drove Nick’s perpetually ignored mother to abandon them and caused undeniable strain in his relationship with his father. And although he had to share his dad with every member of the Darlings and their capricious whims, Nick is drawn into the same arrangement for two irresistible reasons. The first consists of the fact that with all of their wealth, he’ll finally be able to make a positive change in his community, doing the type of pro bono and philanthropic work of which he’d always dreamed. But the second is far less saintly and much more sinister as after his father died in a plane crash under mysterious circumstances, Nick has decided to find out what happened to his father along with which (if any) Darling is responsible and make them pay
Perhaps the most scandalous plotline of the show surrounds an excellent William Baldwin as the attorney general and aspiring senator Patrick Darling, who on the surface has a picture perfect life and marriage, but hides a rather shocking secret in his ongoing relationship with the transgendered cosmetology student named Carmelita (a gorgeous Candis Cayne). While Carmelita is not only arguably the love of his life and indeed one of the show’s most morally sound characters, her very existence on the show is “socially groundbreaking” as Wright notes in a DVD featurette on the actress called The Other Woman: Candis Cayne. Instead of providing a role that could’ve easily been treated either for laughter’s sake or as a platform for an overbearing “message,” Wright chose to use the show “to remind” people that “there are all kinds of ways to be human,” but of course, Patrick’s traditional and extremely ambitious father Tripp Darling (Hollywood veteran Donald Sutherland) is determined to persuade his son to kick her to the curb. 
Providing the greatest and most reliable comic relief is Zea’s Karen, who harbors a flagrant crush on Nick with an undying passion to get back together with the married lawyer no matter what the cost. Whether it’s hitch-hiking a ride on the private family jet to crash an Italian trip with Nick and his wife or considering canceling her latest wedding, the discord between Karen and his wife Lisa strengthens throughout the season until at last Lisa must confront Karen. The only thing is, Darlings don’t play by the rules and they don’t take threats kindly.
While the sexually secure Karen flaunts her stuff, her younger sister and Jeremy’s sweet but Paris Hilton-like childish twin Juliet (Samaire Armstrong) battles insecurity over her latest acting performance to a rivalry with her old best friend Natalie Kimpton (Tamara Feldman) who had the audacity to steal her signature bangs. However, the rest of the Darlings have far greater matters at stake. 
And indeed, it’s the other Darling son, the Reverend Brian Darling (Glenn Fitzgerald) who is hiding an even greater secret that’s quickly revealed in the season’s earliest episodes as we learned that Brian — a family man much like Patrick — has illegitimately fathered a child. One of the sharpest written characters on the show and played to enviable perfection by Fitzgerald as arguably the most unlikable character (who must hide true emotion below bitterness at all times), I was fascinated to learn that Minnesota native Craig Wright, who holds a Master’s in Divinity, may be culling from his own background. Although he claims that all characters contain a bit of himself and on the DVD featurette shares that Nick’s relationship with the Darlings reminds him of his own relationship as a playwright with Hollywood, it’s Brian who other crew members say reflect the show’s creator the most. Yet this being a soap opera, of course, he’s far more prone to deceit than anyone could be in reality.
While one would assume that is all the drama one show could handle, more mysteries are revealed concerning the main premise of the pilot episode — namely, just what exactly happened to Nick’s father, Dutch. After learning about a large check written to an airplane mechanic who worked on the plane that killed his father, finding a briefcase filled with a huge file on the mysterious “techno-philanthropist” Simon Elder (Blair Underwood), and discovering that the Darling matriarch, Letitia (Jill Clayburgh) had had an affair with his father for more than forty years, Nick realizes that while he finds clues on a daily basis, what he really needs is answers. 
Yet there appears to be something in his easygoing charm and bravado that doesn’t quite sit right, nor do the confident smiles of Tripp or most of the Darling clan. But in a world where plenty of people are ready to do their dirty work and vaults are filled around the city with gold and jewels for whatever blackmail needs may come one’s way, just who is telling the truth and whom can Nick trust? While of course, this isn’t solved in the first season, some major revelations are revealed throughout and viewers held their breaths in anticipation from one episode to the next when promos like this hit the airwaves.
Additionally, it offers a second chance to get caught up with the brilliant writing and multi-faceted plot filled with secrets, deception, intrigue, romance, and comedy with ten jam-packed 
