Despite its name, Fox’s new comedy “Stacked” is flat. Which begs the question: If Pamela Anderson plays the lead role, do viewers expect more?
The Wednesday show follows Skyler Dayton (Anderson), a party girl who decides to take on a new life and a new job after stumbling into The Stacks bookstore. Owner and failed author Gavin Miller (Elon Gold) can’t manage to get rid of Dayton, while brother and co-owner Stuart (Brian Scolaro) salivates over the new help.
The moral of the series is–all together now–you can’t judge a bookstore by its cover girl. In this case, you can.
Anderson, Gold and Scolaro play one-dimensional characters with the skill of one-dimensional actors. Anderson delivers lines as though it’s her first time reading off of cue cards, although she struts around in heels and miniskirts to help viewers choke them down.
“Call me old-fashioned, but if you’re going to be in bed with two women, one of them had better be me,” is just one of many classic lines she’s delivered.
Christopher Lloyd plays his character–a retired rocket scientist/bookstore customer–much the same as he played Doc on “Back to the Future,” but it’s overdone and out of place in “Stacked.”
Marissa Jaret Winokur, as Katrina, operates the bookstore’s cafe. She’s the only one who breathes some undeserved life into this series. But it’s not enough.
The premise of “Stacked” leaves few possibilities for future plots or storylines, and the script writers used up all possible book puns in the first two episodes (what a “novel” idea, get it?).
Viewers should give Fox a small amount of credit. Producers put the real drive behind the show right out there in the open: The beginning of every episode shows Anderson swishing her hair back and forth “Baywatch”-style in an unbuttoned white shirt and a red bra.
There’s only one reason why this comedy didn’t hit the cutting room floor.
OK, two big reasons.
– Don’t try to hide it. We’re all excited to watch “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” at 7 p.m. Saturday on ABC.
– Charlie narrows it down to his final two roses on ABC’s “The Bachelor” at 8 p.m. Monday.
