(From The Hartford Courant -- By Roger Catlin)
From a network whose ideas of finding romance is more often displayed on shows such as THE BACHELOR (a reality series that will emanate from PARIS next season), the new, short-term summer series HOOKING UP (Thursdays at 9 pm ET on ABC) comes not from the entertainment division but ABC NEWS.
The group that previously sent out teams of cameramen to produce such summer documentary series as the hospital-based HOPKINS 24/7, the look at the mayor's office in BOSTON 24/7 and the self-explanatory NYPD 24/7 is now following especially paranoid and skittish singles in NEW YORK trying to find potential mates via the Internet.
Computer browsing for love is not exactly new ground, nor is the discovery by more than one of the 12 women followed that what you see is NOT what you get.
AMY, 28, shows her MIDWESTERN ROOTS by saying outright she wants a family, something that's verboten among the cool city dabblers in romance. But it entices one of her new online acquaintances, who dreams up some perfect dates for her and shows how serious he is by cancelling another planned date.
Single gynecologist LISA, 36, knows she's a great catch amd doesn't tell her men on the first date that she's a doctor, not even when she's dating another doctor. Turns out that he isn't put off by her omission. But he's a little shaken that she didn't use her real name on their first date.
Picky hari-salon manager CYNTHIA, 34, bails on dinner with one loopy guy who proves to be at least a decade older than the picture he posted; she's put off by a guy who licks his fingers at dinner and makes her pay half.
Ad executive CLAIRE, 26, finds one date OK but there's no spark, but she falls too hard for another guy, who subsequently drops her by email, learning the hard way that daters who live by the Internet also die by the Internet.
HOOKING UP is slowly addictive in it's own way, but is only a few mean on-screen captions and a snarky host away from being BLIND DATE (UPN).
The FIVE part documentary-series HOOKING UP airs Thursdays at 9 pm on ABC. Part TWO airs next Thursday.
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