Greetings,
I don't know if any of you out there believe that you can have too much of a good thing, but I certainly do. Some really good things are just meant to be what they are. There is no need to expand upon them, and, in doing so, they have the danger of being ruined. You know, like if you have a fantastic movie and think it would be a great idea to turn it into a series, and then you realize, NO! And such a predicament brings us to today's subject, My Big Fat Greek Life.
In 2002, a small independent film called My Big Fat Greek Wedding became an unexpected and phenomenal hit, grossing nearly 250 million dollars on a 5 million dollar budget. That is some good profit. Many times, what with crap movies making more money than they deserve, I would be annoyed about something like that. But this little film deserved every bit of success that it got. So did the woman behind it.
Nia Vardalos wrote this screenplay in the hopes of sharing the true tale of her meeting a man, introducing him to her family and eventually marrying him. Seems pretty basic and not very special, but you throw in the traits, stories and personalities of her extremely Greek family and it becomes pure gold. Now I am not going to speak too much on the actual movie today. That's not our subject, plus, I may review that one day. Let me just say that I loved this movie because it was very, very real. A lot of people do things like this which are supposed to be based on their real life, but they don't always seem so sincere. This film was covered in a warm, fluffy blanket of authenticity. You knew in your heart that all of this actually happened, and knowing that made it even more hilarious. This was just a very special little film. Having said that, I must now move on.
With great success often comes great opportunities, like turning your sleeper hit movie into a well-budgeted series. Look, I do not fault Nia for taking a chance on this. My Big Fat Greek Wedding was obviously a passion project for her, so why not try to extend the magic of it? Well, I see that movie as something similar to what we call a "coming of age" film. By that, I mean it is the story of one specific, life changing moment in time. One special moment. It's not easy to take that and stretch it into a series. And it just didn't work here. Let me just share a bit about the show.
My Big Fat Greek Life was an attempt to make a sequel by way of a television series. Of course, considering the last few minutes of the movie, I guess technically the show would be a midquel. Look it up. Anyway, the show begins as Nia and Thomas return from their honeymoon, thus, giving us the first change from the movie. The character names of Toula and Ian have been changed to Nia and Thomas, because . . . I don't know. And our former Ian/current Thomas was now being played by an actor named Steven Eckholdt, as John Corbett was busy filming his own one season show, Lucky. Other than that, though, the rest of the movie's cast decided to join up together again, and, considering that stellar group, it was a major plus. Not to mention the fact that they had some awesomely Greek guest stars, like Rita Wilson, who was a producer on My Big Fat Greek Wedding. We also got Yanni, John Aniston, and Frank Stallone. Okay, we got awesomely Greek actors and one awesomely Italian actor who could easily pretend to be Greek. And yet, even with all of that, this show just could not do what the movie did.
I think many people who watched the first few episodes did so because they were hoping it would give them the same entertainment and feeling as the film. Of course, once they realized that it was not going to happen, they stopped watching. That led to the series being aired for a mere seven episodes. Looking back, I think that was something of a blessing. Whilst the show did have all the same "We're Greek, You're Not" jokes that we loved from the film, it, unfortunately, had all the same "We're Greek, You're Not" jokes. My point is that things like this are perfect for a two hour movie, not a series you want to last for years. I'm not saying that there weren't a few moments of funny, but these jokes would have gotten old, even to the point where we may have begun to no longer want to watch the beloved film anymore. Thankfully, that did not happen.
So, the question is, did it deserve a second season? No, it didn't. Sorry. Again, it really should not have even had this season. My Big Fat Greek Wedding was too special, too "one moment in time"-ish to be stretched to the point where its loyal fans would have gotten sick of the hilarious novelty of it. It was the whole quirky, Greek family element that made the film great and the jokes funny. If you were to take that out of the series, you would be left with kind of a generic family sitcom. It just didn't work in that way.
Look, I am going to end this on a positive note by speaking quickly again on the movie. I love My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I own it. If it's on TV, I'm going to watch it. It's really a brilliant film in the most beautifully simple way, and after more than a decade, it has not lost any of its charm or value. Maybe if they could have foreseen that it would not have lost its freshness, even after all these years, they would have realized that the film was more than enough. So, whilst this series is there as a not good blip on the radar, we still have the wonderful movie to make us smile.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
