Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Monday, March 11, 2002
By John Levesque
"The American Embassy" looks as if it should be on The WB's
prime-time schedule.
And that's not a bad thing.
The WB has presented some of the best-conceived, best-written programming
in the past five years, from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
(now at UPN) to "Felicity" to "Gilmore Girls."
"The American Embassy," an appealing new Fox drama about
a 29-year-old American starting her career in the Foreign Service,
has that same WB look: earnest, freshly scrubbed, devoid of coarseness.
It is so unlike a Monday night drama on Fox that first-time viewers
tonight may be flustered, especially since "Embassy" appears
for the next six weeks in the spot normally occupied by "Ally
McBeal," and tonight it follows a "Boston Public" installment
that wonders in its promotional material: "How young is too young
to be a centerfold?"
For a while during its development, "The American Embassy"
had a "McBeal"-like title. It was called "Emma Brody"
after the main character, who flees the country to get over a failed
relationship. The first episode even has a "McBeal"-like
plot device in the early going: a passionate encounter in an airplane
lavatory. But this homage to the style and substance of David E. Kelley
has an un-Foxy twist.
Call it scriptus interruptus, with our heroine striking a blow for
self-respecting women everywhere. Not that Emma isn't likely to hook
up with some hunk sooner or later. "Embassy," after all,
is a cleverly disguised soap opera. But give credit to Danny DeVito's
production company, Jersey Television, for not taking the low road
right out of the gate.
In that sense, "Embassy" is more like "Felicity"
than "Ally McBeal," not so interested in shocking us as
in establishing empathy through the building of a relationship with
the viewer. It's a risky gambit, because there's no guarantee "The
American Embassy," an expensive production shot entirely in London,
will survive beyond its six-episode test run. So, while it lasts,
let us celebrate a series rooted in wide-eyed hope rather than cynical
opportunism.
Much of the show's appeal rests in the apple-cheeked aspect of Arija
Bareikis (AH-ree-uh buh-RAY-kiss), who makes Emma Brody the elemental
Midwesterner without resorting to corny Hollywood contrivance. Bareikis
grew up in Indiana and considers herself "a late bloomer, very
naïve." Emma Brody is cut from similar cloth, but this doesn't
mean it's gingham.
Emma is smart and sophisticated, though not well traveled. As a brand-new
vice consul at the American embassy in London, she faces challenges
both small and staggering, sometimes compounding them with her own
idealistic innocence. Far from home and unsure of her place in the
grand scheme, she doubts her competence until the deputy chief of
mission (played by Helen Carey) reminds her she wouldn't be in the
U.S. Foreign Service if she weren't extraordinary, and that extraordinary
people fix the problems they create.
Another piece of contributed wisdom -- "Living is about making
mistakes; dying is about wishing you'd made more" -- threatens
to make "Embassy" the overseas equivalent of "Providence,"
but the sappiness stays in the non-lethal range thanks to unsentimental
characters who seem as if they might exist in real life. Even the
high-born James Wellington (Nicholas Irons), who lives in a mansion
and claims to be tight with the royals, has the ring of truth about
him.
Credit Bareikis with making Emma Brody completely accessible, and
credit Lori Lakin, who wrote the pilot script, with putting sensible
words in her mouth. Even Emma's thoughts are vocalized, a la "Felicity,"
in letters she writes to her younger sister. Such voiceover exposition
is often the dodge of a lazy writer, but it works in "The American
Embassy," helping to cement Emma's place in a world vastly different
from the one she left behind.