First things first. The advertisements that CBS has been running to drum up an audience for "Cupid & Cate" are more than a bit misleading — this is not by any means a light-hearted comedy.
Oh, there are certainly light moments in Sunday's Hallmark Hall of Fame production, but there is a great deal more depth to this TV movie than those commercials might make it appear.
Mary-Louise Parker stars as Cate, a young woman who's just sort of drifting through life. She runs a not-too-successful vintage clothes store, whereas her three sisters are a doctor (Bebe Neuwirth), a model (Joanna Going) and a socialite wife and mother (Rebecca Luker).
She's estranged from her irascible father (Philip Bosco), and she's engaged — seemingly without any passion at all — to a seriously dull guy (David Lansbury).
But things take a sudden turn when she meets Harry (Peter Gallagher), a successful, handsome lawyer with whom Cate falls passionately in love. She suddenly seems headed toward happiness when . . . well, without giving too much away, let's just say the plot then winds its way through cancer and childbirth and alcoholism and family feuds.
There's a lot going on here.
The thread that holds all this together is Cate's relationship — or lack thereof — with her father. "Cupid & Cate" is a relationship movie. Despite all that happens, it's still a rather understated telefilm with fine performances lifting a script by Jennifer Miller and Ron Raley, based on the novel by Christina Bartolomeo.
As with just about all Hallmark Hall of Fame productions, you can't go wrong here.
JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (Sunday and Monday at 8 p.m. on Ch. 5), on the other hand, is just plain dreadful.
Oh, the special effects are cool enough — at least for TV — but the rest of this bloated four-hour "extravaganza" is unwatchable dreck. Jason London is truly terrible in the title role, the ancient Greek hero of legend who embarks on a quest for the Golden Fleece in order to reclaim the kingdom stolen by his uncle (Dennis Hopper, who looks simply foolish as evil King Pelius).
There are deeds of derring-do and all that malarky, but its a chore to sit through all four hours. (It's a chore to sit through the first 10 minutes, for that matter.) And a decent cast, which includes Frank Langella, Derek Jacobi and Natasha Henstridge, is utterly wasted.
While this could have been good, campy fun if it had been carried a little bit further, it's just unintentionally awful.
Avoid "Jason" at all costs.
MAKING VIEWERS MAD: Here's hoping the folks at Ch. 5 have learned a thing or two since last Saturday.
Following the Jazz game on NBC in the afternoon, KSL gave viewers an extended post-game show. Then it went ahead with a full half-hour newscast. All of which meant Ch. 5 joined NBC's prime-time programming at about 7:15 p.m. — and joined "The Pretender" in progress.
There may not be a whole lot of people who watch that show, but those that do were mad. And with good reason. They missed the entire setup of the narrative, essentially making what they did get unwatchable.
It's not smart to make your customers mad like that. Particularly when it was so avoidable.