'Once and Again' has true emotion

By Mike Duffy, Free Press TV Writer -- Most television doesn't get under your skin.

It slides right on by, offering slick, escapist diversion. Nothing wrong with that. We all need a little light entertainment in our lives. Otherwise "Friends" wouldn't be so popular.

But "Once and Again," which returns to ABC's lineup at 10 tonight after a five-week hiatus, is different. It has the admirable gall to be a little irritating at times by daring to present fully rounded adult characters, imperfect people with flaws who are struggling with newfound love and broken marriage.

Created by Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, the two writer-producers who dreamed up "thirtysomething" and who shepherd ed the unforgettable "My So-Called Life" onto the airwaves for a brief, brilliant run in 1994-95, "Once and Again" is the sort of show some people adore and others abhor.

It focuses on the middle-aged crazy emotional collision of Lily Manning (Sela Ward) and Rick Sammler (Billy Campbell).

He's an architect and single parent who's been divorced for three years.

She's a homemaker coping with an impending divorce and lots of free-floating anxiety while raising two daughters.

At times, Rick and Lily have behaved like self-absorbed, immature suburban twits as they've tumbled into a giddy love affair. They've groped each other like hormonal teens. They've gotten stoned on the sheer, giddy bliss of fresh, unexpected romance.

And then -- even as their yearning continued to burn -- they pulled back from each other. Bruised by doubts, they're bumping up against the tangled reality of their complicated lives, lives filled with responsibilities, children and former spouses. Love hurts.

Which is where we find "Once and Again" as it returns.

Lily and her estranged husband Jake (Jeffrey Nordling) are wrangling over the particulars of their divorce settlement. And Rick is coping with an acerbic, difficult architectural client, one Miles Drentell (David Clennon), in a delightfully witty resurrection of a memorable character from "thirtysomething."

Blessed with a terrific ensemble cast headed by Ward in the role of her life, "Once and Again" sports the Zwick-Herskovitz signature touch of consistently intelligent writing that also rings emotionally true.

It's writing that can be very amusing as well.

"When I first saw you," observes the dour Drentell, sizing up Rick Sammler, "I thought you were too robust and handsome to have much of a brain."

This quick, funny moment offers a neat skewering of Rick's (and Campbell's) surface image as a simple, square-jawed dreamboat. But beneath the surface of both Rick and Lily's gorgeous J. Crew exteriors, there's plenty of brainy angst and haunted longing.

The characters' neurotic tics can be aggravating to some viewers.

Especially when they offer their thoughts in confessional black-and-white mini-scenes while talking to the camera.

But "Once and Again," which uses that tricky stylistic device as well as any show ever has, remains a leading member of TV's outstanding freshman class of high-quality dramas. It's a high-achieving class that also includes "The West Wing," "Freaks and Geeks," "Now and Again" and "Roswell."

The joke has been that "Once and Again" could be renamed "fortysomething." Zwick and Herskovitz should take that as a compliment.

Because "Once and Again" -- scenes from an evolving, honest grown-up love affair -- is every bit as original and arresting as the producers' 1980s yuppie masterpiece. Welcome back, Rick and Lily. You've gotten under my skin.__Detroit Free Press (January 24, 2000)