liquidcelluloid-1 Network: CBS; Genre: Family Sitcom, Movie Translation; Content Rating: TV-G; Classification: contemporary (Star range: 1 - 4)Season Reviewed: Complete series (1 season)Let's be honest. 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding', as a movie, was a big screen sitcom in it's heart and soul to begin with. Its paper thin characters, silly almost nonsensical script and focus on broadly played ethnic stereotypes makes an almost seamless translation to the small screen in 'My Big Fat Greek Life'. So, I for one don't think the show is creator Nia Vardalos 'cashing in' on the surprise success of her film. It's a logical extension of the movie. For those who have managed to stay awake for the entire movie will find this show has shoehorned its reality in between the last and second to last scene. The honeymoon is over. A few changes have been made, of course, to make this enterprise even more of a sitcom. The name of Vardalos' character has been changed from Toula to Nia as to not confuse the average drive-by sitcom viewer who apparently wouldn't understand why the star's character name is different for her real name. Also big name John Corbett has wisely and expectedly jumped ship for the short-lived but more respectable FX series 'Lucky'. The show fits right in with all the family sitcoms that gorge the line-up at CBS, amplifying how much this concept is like the minimalist family classic 'Everybody Loves Raymond'. 'Raymond's characters are distinctly Italian with all the related eccentricities, but the themes are timeless and stretch across cultures.'Life' is more like the 'Raymond' clones. They aren't the usual white Anglo-Saxon married couples with oppressive families, but they are still Comedies of Familiarity (which lazily only try to get laughs by poking at the most common and obvious domestic jokes and people only laugh at them because it is familiar). Regardless of the endless cultural specific ethnic jokes, which have been broadened out wildly from the movie in an attempt to homogenize the series as much as possible, 'Life' is still just like the other Comedies of Familiarity. It is a one-joke series. Vardalos' jokes are little more than: We're Greek So We Do This, We're Greek So We Do That. She smirks with self-assuredness when making her Windex jokes because she's confident the suckers that loved them in the movie will love them a hundred more times. I understand we're all supposed to get on the bus and root for Nia Vardalos because she's a Hollywood outsider and her stuff is cutesy and harmless. She's pandering, but she's pandering to the married crowd that doesn't mind it. I'll say it: Vardalos is what you'd call, if she was a man, a hack. And we're expected to endure her syrupy sweet scripts and wait it out until this girl irons her show out or cross our fingers and hope she comes into her own and makes something great. Pardon me if I don't hold my breath.Because it's about married life and, yes, an ethnic group that is a minority on TV, people will blindly defend her (despite reported diva antics on the set and in photo shoots) and this kind of series to the death. Hey, if that's your thing, go for it, but this is bottom-of-the-barrel sitcom stuff. 'Life' is so poorly acted by all, particularly when Vardalos is engaging in classic slapstick, it's cringing. The ethnic humor is so broadly played it's fruitless to call it true to Greek life because this fluff is pretty much true for everyone. Yeah, the show is awful, but the movie was awful too. It's more of a lateral move than a step down. CBS got exactly what they paid for. *

Jim Menke There was a lot wrong with the first episode of "My Big Fat Greek Life". It seemed to have been rushed into production without too much chance to fix what was going wrong. The producers tried to do too much in the first episode and include too many characters. There were at least two episodes pushed into 30 minutes. In doing this, there was not enough time to really develope each one.Nia Valardos was quoted in preshow stories that she did not want a laugh track but that CBS insisted on one. BIG MISTAKE. It is not a laugh out loud type sitcom (the movie was, but not the TV version should not become "I Love Nia" slapstick vehicle). She also said that the reason for the name changes for herself and her husband was that she did not think it fair for an actor to step into a role so closely identified with another actor. (Personally, I find Steven Eckhold a much better actor and better looking than John Corbett. I really find Corbett unattractive and unappealing. I know most woman fall over themselves about him - mine is a male point of view.) Mr. Eckhold was not given much chance to develope the character in the first episode and to judge him on this one episode is very unfair. Give him a chance.The producers/writers should have concentrated on one story line, either the return from the honeymoon or the gift of the house. Trying to use each in one time period was a BIG mistake. Also in using every character from the film in the first show did not allow any character development.If the series is to succeed, and I hope it does, it will have to reevalute the hectic pace of the first show and concentrate on the warm and wonderful characters from the film and not on TV stereotypes.

chester-gray First of all disregard all the other comments that you read on this page. There was nothing wrong with the pilot episode of the TV series. I cant believe that more people didnt like it. I cant wait for the second episode to be shown on Global on Monday.

Janet What was the first thing I noticed wrong about the sitcom version of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"...besides the obvious absence of John Corbett? The stupid laugh track. I cringed when I heard that damn repetitious laughing at every stupid joke. As many of you, I greatly enjoyed the movie..and I was in the process of watching it on DVD when I realized that the TV show was about to come on. So, I put the movie on pause.It was only when I got to the part where the family said to 'Thomas'..."You look different!" (a painfully obvious joke about the different actor, a lackluster Steven Eckhardt who played 'Mark' on "Friends"). 'Cousin Nikki' was noticeably rounder..probably because she was either pregnant or just had her daughter when the pilot was filmed. No matter. It wasn't TOO noticeable. Gus was too..I don't know. Whiny, I guess. Lanie Kazan was pretty much the same. As was Nick, but more nosy about his sister's life.Now to Nia. First of all, I think it was just plain stupid to change the two main character's names. Why did they find that this was necessary? I personally liked the name Toula. It was cool. It was different. And I liked the named Ian. It wasn't cool, but he had the same name as Gandalf. Just because it was a different actor playing the part didn't mean that they had to change the character. Her acting in the sitcom was only sub-par. She seemed to be trying to hard.Now about Eckholdt. In the movie, Ian was sweet and willing to go the distance to be accepted into Toula's (or NIA's) family. Are we to believe that Thomas said "To Hell with it!!" after they married? It's possible. Maybe he decided he couldn't put up with her family's crap. Well, it has happened before. But I just found myself disliking Thomas more and more as the minutes droned on, until I wanted Nia to serve him some poisonous souvlaki to rub him out. The character I liked was Aunt Voula. Andrea Martin is wonderful. Thank God "MBFGL" still has her.I'm being too negative. As the show progressed, it grew on me a little until Gus pointed out that the house was across from the restaurant, not next door to him. Of course, I'm sure the show will grow..let the actors settle back into their characters, give them some material to work with that will ignite genuine laughs, not like the uncomfortable laughs derived from me during the pilot. Material that will not just give a cheap laugh. Material that would've probably been in the movie if it was a little longer.