MOONS OVER MILFORD

If humanity were faced with the end of life on the planet with expectation that death could come anywhere between tomorrow and in twenty years, what would they do?

Run through the classic stages of grief? Battle with depression and denial a la the survivors in On The Beach? Would civilization collapse in a spiral of destruction and despair?

Well, according to this dopey show on ABC Family, apparently everyone would simply become charmingly eccentric.

Lord knows there have been plenty of shows that require a hefty suspension of disbelief, where we are asked to accept walking, talking dead folk, or a variety of standard SF tropes.

But Milford asks us to accept a world in which nobody has a recognizably human response to destruction on planetary scale. A lighthearted romp through the holocaust or a cheery series about those quirky guys who ran the Spanish Inquisition would make more sense.

Perhaps it could have worked as a cartoon or broad comedy (it has, in fact, been done with both the holocaust and the Spanish Inquisition). But it seems clear that this is meant to be humanity-based dramedy, heartfelt humanism for the same folks who like Gilmore Girls or Everwood.

But the chances that I'm going to warm up to these characters who seem to be missing some fundamental human emotional equipment are small. The premise of this series insures its own failure. And now that I've posted this, I either get to say I told you so or eat some tv crow. We shall see.