(Photo by: Jordin Althaus/NBC)
Have you had a chance to catch NBC’s new comedy, About A Boy? If not, you should give it a chance. When I run through my list of tv shows that I consistently watch, I find that 90% of them are dramas. It’s hard to find a comedy that is smart and engaging. About A Boy has witty dialogue, likable characters, and great actors. The premise is simple: Will (David Walton) and Fiona (Minnie Driver) live next door to each other. Fiona’s son, Marcus (Benjamin Stockham), takes a shine to Will and the two end up bonding.
If you’ve seen the first couple of episodes, you know that Fiona is a mess. She is extremely overprotective and has built her life around her son. Will isn’t much better. He floats from woman to woman and lacks direction in his career. Instead of shoving these two together romantically, the show is allowing each character to figure out his or her paths. Will has a new love interest, so where does that leave Fiona? Will she also find a special someone? She may already have one.
At a recent screening at NBC, OHSOGRAY asked Minnie Driver and executive producer Jason Katims what they thought Fiona’s ideal man would look like and what future romantic connections she may have. **SPOILERS**
Minnie Driver: [Fiona’s ideal man?] Oh my god. Tony Hale [as Fiona’s ex-husband]. I’m not joking. He gets out of the car and she says to Will, “He’s like a Greek god, isn’t he?” She’s just completely obsessed. They have whatever it is between them that other people can’t see necessarily. He’s verging on the spectrum of Asperger’s – there’s an aspect of him that is very spectrum-y. I think Fiona’s fairly confused. She’s unraveling all of this stuff. I’m not sure that she knows really, yet, what it is.
Jason Katims: One of the things that I’m really excited about – it’s why I love television, the form more than anything else – this is something we get to explore, hopefully, for many seasons. I think it started in the About a Plumber episode. It was the first time that she sort of dipped her toe in the dating pool waters, probably since Marcus’ father. The idea of watching that evolve over time and watching Fiona figure that out… We talked about the Tony Hale episode and there’s another episode where she winds up getting potentially romantically involved with one of Will’s friends, which creates another complication. One of the fun things about doing this and having incredible actors like Minnie and David to work with is you get to watch this evolve over time and continue to watch Fiona grow. If we were just doing the movie version, Fiona would have one particular…she would be Will’s obstacle. But what’s great about doing television is that over time you get to tell stories where you completely switch up and change that dynamic. It’s really fun.
About a Boy airs on Tuesdays 9/8c on NBC.