CBS (Mondays, 9:30 P.M. ET)
B-
In this offbeat new series, Jonathan Penner plays a Miami restaurant owner, Lynn Clark plays his girlfriend, a cruise-line executive, and Steven Eckholdt is his brother, a sportscaster. The first time we meet them, they are confiding to the camera how they lost their virginity. How's that for instant intimacy?
Each episode has a title like "The Katie and Adam Story" and details the romantic entanglements of some of their friends, all impossibly good-looking people who talk suggestively about their sexual experiences.
The stories are told in quick-cut style as the three stars, their lovers and assorted others shuffle their lines of dialogue. Rarely does anyone get to speak more than two sentences before it's on to the next witness in the show's Huey-Dewey-and-Louie expository style. With its ostensibly naughty, self-conscious tone, Grapevine is like watching a Victoria's Secret catalog come to life. It's frisky and flippant, yes, but also plastic and glib. The show's six-week run should be just about enough.
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