Open mic... Wanna be discovered? Go to the Ark tonight by 7:30 p.m. for your big chance. $3 admission, $2 for students. michigandaily.com/arts ARTS WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 3, 2001 7 'According to Jim'. offers nothing new Genuine characters make great 'Hero's' By Katie Den Bleyker For the Daily Jim Belushi, of "Curly Sue" fame, stars in the new ABC sitcom about Jim, a "modern" dad who parents from his Lazy Boy. Jim is both macho According and sensitive, but to Jim must cope with his wife, Cheryl ABC (Courtney Tonight at 8:30 p.m. Thorne-Smith, y "Ally McBeal"), F' his two young daughters, his sis- ter-in-law Dana (Kimberly Williams, a tal- ented actress who The first episode of "According to Jim" focuses on the trauma both par- ents face when their oldest daughter hates kindergarten and cries when her parents leave her. Jim's innovative solu- tion is to switch his daughter's school so that they can attend kindergarten together (and what guy wouldn't want to participate in nap time again?). The fact that he fails to mention this to his wife, and bribes his daughter into silence creates a bit of friction between Jim and Cheryl, just as his brother-in- law is having marital problems of his own. Reoccurring throughout the episode is the message that although married people fight, often about stupid things, they must kiss and make up in order for the marriage to vork. Any Psych 111 student could have told you that. By Beatrice Marovich For the Daily Hailed as one'of the most delight- ful new voices in the recent wave of young writers of Indian origin, Anita Rau Badami has spun an enchanting tale in her newest novel, Courtesy of ABC Jim Belushi and Courtney Thorne-Smith star in this mediocre new comedy. Raymond" rolled into one). Jim Belushi has a winning comic personality that is likable enough to keep viewers watch- ing from week to week. However, the show needs to step up its comic timing a bit. There are good bits (Jim being dragged away from his daughter's kindergarten class by school security guards) mixed with not so good ones (Jim playing a Spice Girls song on his naked belly to make his wife laugh - if I were married to this man I would be very scared). And speaking of flesh, the support- ing characters need to be fleshed out a bit, although there is plenty of opportu- nity to do so in later episodes. If "According to Jim" succeeds on ABC, it would not be a surprise, but if it fails, it would not exactly be a shock either. Its premise and humor are very generic which, in the world of TV, could either be a very good thing or a very bad thing. The Hero's Walk Anita Rau Badami Grade: A- Algonquin Books "The Hero's Walk." This is her second novel, but the first to be published in America. Bada- mi, who lives in Canada, recent- ly beat out Mar- garet Atwood's "The Blind Assassin," win- ning The Com- m o n w e a I t h Prize in the is grossly underused in the first "According to Jim" shows promise, episode) and his brother-in-law Andy if not originality (imagine "Home (Larry Joe Campbell). Improvement" and "Everybody Loves Not even Babe can save'Citizen Banes By Ryan Blay Daily Arts Writer This summer I had the opportuni- ty to watch the TV movie of the "Growing Pains" reunion. Remem- ber the premise? Mom Maggie Seaver runs for political office, her lawyer daughter with Citizen the type-A per- Baines sonality man- ages the CBS campaign, one of her children Saturday at 9 p.m. goofs up and at the end they all realize what they have is each other. Well, watching the pilot of " C i t i z e n Baines" was sort of like that. Minus the catchy theme song. James Cromwell ("Babe") takes on the role of Elliott Baines, three- term incumbent senator from the state of Washington. Up for re-elec- tion, he is confident he can defeat his young republican opponent - so of course he loses. All the while his three daughters slowly reveal their typecast personalities bit by bit. Ellen (Embeth Davidtz, "Bridget Jones's Diary") is the hotshot lawyer managing her father's cam- paign. Ellen is high strung and per- haps frustrated by her law firm, which wants her to run for office to give it. more political clout, and in the next episode will tender her father a job offer. The nerve! Jane Adams ("Frasier") is Reeva, the Married Daughter. With two rambunctious kids at home and a failing marriage, she is a wreck. She discovers her husband might be cheating on her, and to make mat- ters worse, she is pregnant again. Dori (Jacinda Barrett, "The Real World") is the Young Daughter Who Wants to be Out of Daddy's Shadow But Doesn't Want to Lose the Perks. When she goes in for an interview for a position as a photographer in Seattle, she discovers that her dad's connections gave her the job. But Elliott reminds her of all the help he's given her through the years, such as wiping out reckless driving and marijuana possession issues. Still, she wants to break free. It seems natural to want to root for Elliott Baines. After all, he's a bit old but still reasonably liberal; Canadian/Caribbean region. As an immigrant from India, Badami mas- terfully weaves her newfound West- ern world with that of the quickly changing East. Her juxtaposition Of the two is one of the novel's many enlightening qualities. In a small coastal town near Ben- gal, Badami's cast of characters live and conduct their daily lives. Her primary character, Shripathi Roy, is a middle-aged copywriter who has somehow managed to reside in the same big house on Brahmin Street since birth. In the mornings, before ambling off to a job that he hates, Shripathi writes scathing letters to the editors of local papers under the pseudonym "Pro Bono Publico." Accompanying him through his humdrum existence is his bizarre family. His cantankerous old mother constantly threatens to die and rob them all of her existence. His 41- Courtesy of CBS The characters of "Citizen Baines" hope and pray for this show to survive. frustrated by life yet still cares for the people, and his wife died years ago, complicating his family life. He's no Josiah Bartlett, but he's no Jesse Helms either. But then again, the pilot spent a whole hour focus- ing on the doomed campaign of a character called Citizen Baines. That tends to deflate a little of the buildup the episode worked so hard to create. Part of the problem is the sad, cliched plot. Besides stealing from NBC's "Three Sisters" (three girls bond over sisterhood, bail each other out, help loving father), "Baines" has the feel of "ER." - Not fresh "ER" circa 1994, but older, clunkier "ER." Perhaps Exec- utive Producer John Wells should share at least some of the blame for this. As a writer/director on "ER," he has overseen some of the most pathetic, melodramatic sap in recent years. Tears, weepy violin music, the whole nine yards. But Wells also works on NBC's much superior drama "The West Wing." So why can't he create similar magic here? The chief reason may be the absence of writers as gifted as Aaron Sorkin of "The West Wing." He would never stoop to having Baines encounter a rabid religious man declare, "it will be as God wants it to be," then use that very line in Baines' concession speech. The only saving grace of the. show is Paul McCrane, a name not familiar to most TV fans, but a tal- ented character actor nonetheless. Viewers of "ER" know him better as resident bastard Dr. Romano. Here he is not used to maximize his tal- ents, but he is still the best part of the cast. Perhaps the writers should have Cromwell call out "bah ram ewe" and magically get Babe to save this show. Even that couldn't work. year-old, unmarriel sister is ready to implode with sexual frustration. His son, Arun, is an environmental- ist who chooses to ignore his father's spiteful comments and remain unemployed. And his wife Nirmala, who he often finds all too ordinary, resents him for the estrangement of their only daughter Maya, who lives across the world in Canada. When an accident forces Shri- pathi to become responsible for Maya's 7-year-old daughter, Nan- dana, the relative tranquility of the entire family is shattered. Shripathi in particular must re-learn every- thing he once knew about children, but his strange 7-year-old grand- child is troubled and proves to be a challenge. His 57-year accumula- tion of various realities seems somehow irrelevant and non-applic- able now. Badami's fantastic characters are, above all else, authentic and credi- ble. They are both beautiful and ter- rible at the same time, concurrently frightened and brave. Faced with a changing world both on the large scale and the small, they watch as India becomes westernized. Ances- tral houses up and down the block are leveled and replaced by tene- ment-like apartment buildings. Each individual is on the brink of meta- morphosis as well, fighting to better understand themselves, their family and perhaps the planet in general. Badami's language is warm, sen- sual and descriptive, bringing life and vitality to her narrative. Moments of emotional intensity exchanged between the family members are the real gems in this novel. A style that is deliberate and thoughtful but never lags may leave you intricately involved with the lives of her characters and regretful to leave them behind. Dreyfuss takes his chance with drama By Ryan Blay Daily Arts Writer Who is Max Bickford? If the pre- miere of "The Education of Max Bickford" is any indication, Max is a badass teacher at an all-female college who has the cojones to tell his students they are brown-nosers, and a family man who loves what teaching used to be, hating what it is now. He's crusty enough to be a defender of teaching about Dead White Males, but liberal enough to care about students learning to b The Education of Max Bickford CBS Sunday at 8 p.m. think critically and actually get an education. Max is played by Richard Dr ey fuss. Richard Drey- fuss won an academy award years ago, and if you actually watched CBS. you were made aware of that several hundred times on ads for culture, which Bickford can't han- dle. At first I wanted Harden to suffer through a miserable series after the horrible crap that was "Pollock." Yet, she seems to have made a wise choice. The show has a decent chance (albeit not a decent time slot) and could become the "Boston Public" of college dramas. But since the title calls for the education of Max, nothing goes normally for him. His best friend Steve is back from sabbatical ... as Erica. His adorable son wants to make the basketball team. He fails. His daughter may be pregnant -- she turns out not to be, but she still is a teenaged girl who just happens to be a freshman at the same school as Bickford. Almost too casually, we learn that Max nearly killed himself years ago and used to be an alcoholic. His beloved wife is dead (whose isn't on CBS?). But what hurts him most is the loss of the chair *after his 30- plus years teaching. The president of the college (Regina Taylor, "I'll Fly Away") is his old friend, but she gives him the hard truth and tells him he has to adapt. Then Max does the natural thing. He resigns. But of course he returns, accepts the position of department head (with all the bullshit that goes along with it) and learns his lesson by admiring his son and all his deter- mination. McKnight to read at Drum tonight By Ryan C. Moloney Daily Arts Writer Reginald McKnight's talent for detailing the human experience is matched by few in today's literary world. The prize-winning. fiction writer and current pro- fessor of English at Michigan will give a reading of his latest work, "He Sleeps," at Shaman Drum tonight at 8 p.m. Reginald The book tells the story of an anthropologist's McKnight journey to Senegal and the personal turmoil and rev- Shaman Drum elation that ensues. In terms of setting, the novel is somewhat predi- Tonight at 8 p.m. eated on a trip McKnight took to Africa in his mid- 20s on a fellowship. Other McKnight works such as "The Kind of Light That Shines on Texas" and "White Boys" expertly capture the essence of the social and emo- tional climate of a specific time period in a small corner of the world. "He Sleeps" is the full incarnation of a short story of the same title in "White Boys" and was released in September. Courtesy ofT Agonquin0ooKs the show. Dreyfuss also portrayed teacher Mr. Holland in "Mr. Hol- land's Opus," something that CBS conveniently forgot before creating an eerily similar concept for this show. But at least Dreyfuss' teacher is inspiring. As a history teacher, he gets to make lots of crucial speech- LIVE AND LEARN JAPANESE!.