Grid Effect

After reading the story, it seems everyone at E! momentarily forgot about the writer’s strike. They’re reporting that after failing to meet expectations in the film industry, Sarah Michelle Gellar is rumored to be considering a return to television. This seems like the natural direction this was bound to take, since her acting has never been her most marketable quality. But we here at Grid Effect embrace her return to the small screen.

We have to admit this development is sort of surprising. When you consider the success of Cruel Intentions and She’s All That, and the fact she was the epicenter of both teen “dramedys”, the failure to capitalize is pretty embarrassing. The follow up to these films has included some forgettable stuff sans The Grudge, which we didn’t like but was commercially viable, and was a genre flick anyhow. Meaning, they could have put anyone in it and it would have achieved the same degree of success. If only every role involved her character deliberating whether to sleep with her stepbrother, she would be the Reese Witherspoon out of the Cruel Intentions cast.

Given this picture, they might just bring back the series.

We know she was wildly successful on Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, the series adopted from the film, but we only tuned in when whichever girl we may have happened to be dating insisted we watch, and we must admit that we we’re fairly unimpressed. The acting was fine, but the writing and direction were marginal at best, and the “fight” scenes were horrendous. Like eight year olds in a karate class horrendous. They might as well done the classic Batman thing and had the words pop up on screen every time someone was “hit”.

So we hope the rumors are indeed true, Mrs. Gellar. Besides, the stereotype the TV plays second fiddle to film is an ugly one we do not endorse. Why, just last night A.O. Scott recommended The Wire’s fourth season as his DVD pick of the week while filling in on Ebert and Roeper. Besides, television needs more overrated series staying afloat and gaining notoriety because Americans recognize the actors/actresses names from movies. Really, we don’t have enough of those.