I was broken-hearted when Flying Blind was canceled after one season. I thought it was one of the funniest series ever. But now I've been re-watching it on YouTube, and I have to admit I don't love it quite as much as before.
The series involves a nebbishy accounts executive who inexplicably lands a gorgeous, fantastically hip woman perpetually followed around by a string of brilliant ex-lovers.
Like Neil, I was a nebbishy New Yorker in the early '90s, so the show represented my dream life of sex and art. How could I not love it?
The humor was very much Catskills comedy, and one of the fascinating features is the difference in delivery styles between Corey Parker and Tea Leoni. They both tell a lot of jokes structured like, "that's the biggest blank since my relative did blank at the blank," but whereas Parker does a Woody Allen impression (a good one), Leoni has this odd, shambling way of telling the same jokes. She is one of those rare comedic actors who sound like they're actually creating the joke as they go along, and while much of the series performance arts jokes seem less edgy than they did in the 90s, her delivery is still pretty unusual.
While I don't love the series as I once did, I still find it quite likable, and there are many excellent performers, including Micheal Tucci as Neil's father (their familial similarity comes mainly in how they tell jokes) and especially Clea Lewis as Alicia's overshadowed roommate.
While this is a far more conventional sitcom than I realized at the time, it actually does have a pretty good sense of the period. Alicia is an exaggeration of a real type, and at times she manages to capture that emotional instability that makes women like her far less appealing to older, wiser men like the me of today, who knows enough to run away.
Some fans may think my 7 star review is too low. If it's any comfort, my 23-year-old self would completely agree with you.
