The Loop - Season 1 (2006)

The FOX television network has always been notorious for canceling shows with potential. It will always be a mystery to me why shows like Tru Calling and The Lone Gunmen never received a fair shot, but Terminator: The Sara Connor Chronicles, one of the most boring and horribly written shows on television, seems to receive all the praise and attention. To many people The Loop was another show that FOX seemed almost anxious to axe, reinventing the show in the second season and then trashing it.

The Loop stars Bret Harrison (now on the CW show Reaper) as Sam Sullivan, a recent college graduate who managed to land a big corporate job for an airline due to his college thesis. Sam's a bright guy and very well liked, but he quickly discovers juggling a big corporate job, with a demanding boss, and attempting to have any sort of normal social life is near impossible. Living with his brother and two female roommates who hardly work, often clashes a lot with Sam's work life and causes some interesting and often humorous issues.

The Loop is a decent sitcom. Likable characters, a witty script, some good one liners, and lots of corporate antics keep the show entertaining and enjoyable, but unfortunately where the show suffers are the story lines which really appear to be in a loop! The Loop begins to get repetitious very quickly, every episode has the same basic premise. Sam gets some great opportunity to prove his worth, he attempts to juggle this opportunity while at the same time hanging out with his friends, it ends up causing him to completely screw his chance, but then he's miraculously able to save himself at the very last minute... every episode.

Overall, Season 1 is an average start to an average show. At only seven episodes you can easily breeze through this season in two sittings and you'll more than likely enjoy it. Again the repetition is quite noticeable but since the season is so short it's not unbearable. Clearly this was the reason for FOX's major changes in the second (and final) season. From what I read they wrote out the girls and made Sam a complete klutz, changing everything viewers enjoyed about the first season and ending up killing the show in the process. It's a shame because the show did have potential, but never given a real chance. In the end the first season is worth a rent, especially while you’re waiting for the new seasons of your favorite shows to air, but don't expect anything like Seinfeld or The Office.

7/10