The coming-back-home-after-a-ridiculously-long-absence has been fertile subject matter for many a sitcom and movie. "October Road" plumbs that paradigm with mixed results - for one, from a plausibility perspective, it's a bit difficult to believe how someone could just "disappear" for 10 years and never call home once while he is off pursuing a writing career built on, naturally, a best-selling novel portraying all his hometown friends in a less-than-flattering fashion.
This is the premise of "October Road" - Nick Garrett (Bryan Greenberg of "One Tree Hill") returns to Knights Ridge, a small town in Massachusetts, to give a lecture and ends up staying. Ten years ago, Nick told his girlfriend Hannah (Laura Prepon of "That '70s Show") that he would be going off to spend six weeks in Europe. He never came back.
Needless to say, when Nick finally returns home, not everyone is rolling out the welcome mat for the big-city, famous writer. Nick wants to rekindle his relationship with Hannah, now a single mom with a 9-year-old son, but neither she nor his former best friend, Eddie Latekka, are quick to trust Nick's rakish ways.
In the season opener, "Let's Get Owen," Nick and Eddie embark on a trip to New York to get their friend Owen Rowan to come back to Knights Ridge. Upon finding out that his wife and his best friend Ikey have been having an affair, Owen left for his brother's place in New York. On this trip to Nick's all-too-recent haunts, Eddie airs out his discontent with Nick's disappearance and his reluctance to just pick up as "best friends."
In the end, they come back home with Owen in tow in typical "October Road" style: Everything is easily resolved. It doesn't take much dialogue or time to get Owen to come back to his marriage. Hannah also admits to herself that she "still has the same feelings for Nick" and would like to give things a try, but that she cannot risk getting involved with him because "who knows if he will stay this time."
In the following episode, "How To Kiss Hello," she dashes Nick's hopes for an idyllic reunion, tells him that she can't build her life on memories and accepts Ray "Big Cat" Cataldo's engagement proposal. Needless to say, the Hannah and Nick love story is far from over. Viewers will be treated to many a longing gaze and lovesick rumination ad nauseam.
While this love triangle boils over, another saga is also brewing: Just who is the father of Hannah's son, Sam? Yes, viewers. Feel free to think of Knights Ridge as a more elevated, East-Coast version of "Melrose Place." Eddie tells Hannah she needs to tell Nick something about Sam - the paternity drama is sure to unfold in later episodes.
Finally, in "The Infidelity Tour," Nick takes Owen on a "tour" of his wife Allison's unfortunate affair with his best friend Ikey, in the process revealing the "geez, I never saw this coming" truth that Allison was drawn to Ikey because he "listened to her," and Owen took their marriage for granted. A groaner of oversimplification, the viewer is once again served an all-too-easy solution to a fairly complex and challenging situation. Owen vows to set his anger aside and work on repairing his marriage.
While "October Road" does suffer from cliché-ridden writing, oversimplification and some fairly implausible plot set ups, it does have a certain charm to it. For one, Laura Prepon does a great job with her part - in fact, her role is very reminiscent of Lorelei Gilmore's in "The Gilmore Girls." The small-town charm of Knights Ridge isn't unlike Stars Hollow. While it's not exactly nail-bitingly gripping or terribly clever, "October Road" has enough quirky characters and feel-good appeal to make it watchable, if not TiVo-able.
