4 out of 5

Director: Bronwen Hughes

If this had to have been held in comparison to a show that followed, the overall feeling of quality might dip.  Equally, had there been an attempt to fully movie-ize this, and force loose ends into easy conclusion, it might’ve compromised the slight unease that benefits the flow of this extended episode.  So – as presented, this pilot that USA passed on in 2010 or ’11 and then, for whatever reason, chose to show in early 2013 – shares the same slick, pseduo-sexy feel of a lot of USA shows (a channel that my association of watching MacGyver there as a kid and then changing the channels at night when Silk Stalkings would come on), but thanks to a downbeat script that revels in the slipping facade of a slick, pseudo-sexy feel – and locations that find a balance between Hollywood and a realistic representation of New York – Over/Under was born as a surprisingly heavy drama that was, natch, considered “too dark” by the channel’s heavies to pick it up.

We have a stock broker living the high life in Manhattan, just another dickbag at a club, chatting up his trades with his buddies.  His girlfriend is a photographer, they are to be wed.  They live together in some fancy something or other in Manhattan as she photos semi-nude girls, as those girls ask if the couple would be interested in a threesome, and sure, why not.  This opening would turn us off, as who gives a shit about these Shits, except we’re getting an unshaven, nervous version of our lead telling us the story from some unspecified point in the future.  When the story turns to how his addiction to making trades and bets on the side ends up losing his company millions, causing him to lose his job, to go completely broke… a buzzer rings, time is up, and we see that we’re being told the story in a Gambler’s Anonymous meeting.  This setup is telling of the feeling of the whole series – a tad clever, with characters who we should dislike, but maintain just enough humanity that we’re interested in their story.  The cleverness is a requirement of most television shows nowadays, so the sometimes cheeky editing style of quick / over-lapped cuts can be partially excused as television.

We should, for example, dislike his girlfriend – who has stayed with him, who has decided to give marriage a shot as they move into a cheaper (but still hip) neighborhood in Brooklyn.  She claims to be okay with the changes, but she wants him to find a job again, she doesn’t want to change her photography career to unglamorous jobs like photographing pregnant women.  In typical plotting fare, the girl would be the villain.  But there’s actual love in the relationship, and more trust than TV would normally set up for sideplots.  Which was what kept me watching Over/Under  – during its two hours of showing the development of a numbers-running crew with a local boy genius, the mob ties of which would probably have made for the general direction of the show (getting more money, getting mixed up in trouble, what’s worth it, la dee da) – that except for the obvious laying down of extra characters and plotlines for future explortation, the episode doesn’t take the easy outs that make for easy TV.  Would I have kept watching?  It’s tough to say.  It would’ve probably been difficult to hold on to this precarious mix for very long, and soon enough our wife would be an evil bitch and our husband a whiny trouble-maker and our genius too genius-y to be believable.  But for two hours it made a nicely compelling view that makes me disappointed I didn’t at least get to see the show continue to fail… if not continue on to something better.

The four stars is just the nudge in the right direction.  Had this been a movie, it’s average overall, but since USA comes here to determine what kind of programming to put on, it seemed wise to let them know that this is more along the lines of what I would watch.