CBS describes Nancy McKeon's character, Annie O'Donnell, in Can't Hurry Love as being ''an upwardly mobile placement coordinator'' — which, as it turns out, means she makes less than $20,000 a year, lives in a cramped apartment, and tries to find jobs for people who have degrees in medieval literature and ''Byzantine anthropology.'' (In sitcom world, a serious education is considered the height of ridiculousness, of course.) She has two notable pals. At work, it's Roger, a barrel-chested numskull played by Louis Mandylor, who looks like his brother Costas (Picket Fences) and sounds as if he's doing a Tony Danza impersonation. Back at the apartment, there's her next-door-neighbor pal, Didi, played by Mariska Hargitay with a brassy sassiness in a wardrobe apparently designed to remind you that she's the daughter of Jayne Mansfield.
In the trite, stereotypical context of Can't Hurry Love, McKeon comes off as a rock of authenticity — she still has that likable spunkiness that endeared her to audiences when she was Jo in The Facts of Life. Annie seems too nice to be hanging out with these lust-addled party hounds, and McKeon, like so many other actors this season in search of Friends, has just fallen in with a bad crowd. C-
Add your comment
The rules: Keep it clean, and stay on the subject or we might delete your comment. If you see inappropriate language, e-mail us. An asterisk * indicates a required field.