If it’s between Cupid and the Unusuals, I think the Unusuals should win.

Cupid surprised me. Bobby Cannavale and Sarah Paulson have a great deal of chemistry. The love stories are usually very interesting, not only in what they are, but how they end. Because I’m a sap, I found myself in tears at the ending of this week’s episode. Rob Thomas is a hell of a writer and I know that given time, we’ll see Cupid snared by Psyche’s (that’s right, we all know he should end up marrying his psychiatrist, Claire) own form of love arrows. Yes, the show is entertaining and sappy and well written, but it is not as good as the Unusuals.

When I heard the networks were coming out with two cop shows, I could feel my cop show heavy heart begin to buckle under the weight of anticipation. Based on the commercials, I expected the Unusuals to be somewhat a farce of cop shows, but what it turned into was a blend of the comedic and humourous that make life worth living. The craziness of being a cop in a city that is known for the ridiculous, the sublime and the just plain scary deserves a show that gives you all of that. Also, I was glad that this show moves away from the gritty type of show where the cops are no heroes. Amber Tamblyn as Detective Shraeger is excellent, Harold Perrineau and Adam Goldberg work so well together, I just want a show with the two of them and Kai Lennox who plays Eddie Alvarez basically steals every scene he is in.

I think I’m getting a knot in my throat just thinking about this show.

We all love Cupid and I know you’re tired of cop shows, but watch the Unusuals and see how it is different. The Unusuals is doing for cop shows what Bones does for forensic anthropological shows – add character, humour and heart.

I love television and as such, I have had to chose many times to watch one show over another. No, I don’t have a little box in my home recording everything, but I will watch House instead of Chuck, not because I don’t like Chuck, but because I like House more. I will watch Heroes instead of 24, because I kept hoping I would finally see an episode of Heroes that blew me away. 24 is doing a much better job of that, and I should have been watching it. I wish the network would keep both shows. They come on at different times and both are entertaining. But in the end, if ABC has to make a decision, I hope that it saves the Unusuals, even if it is at the expense of Cupid.

I am the biggest frakkin’ soft-hearted, blubber ladened, cry baby when it comes to love. So it was no surprise that I was clamouring to see Cupid. It’s not only the idea of watching a 1 hour love story every week, but also watching another Rob Thomas vehicle.

When I first heard of Rob Thomas, he was writing the show Veronica Mars. I didn’t watch the first season because I was a little sore. I had come up with the idea for a modern day Nancy Drew. I was in the outline stages when it was announced that Veronica Mars was coming out. Mine would have been a high school show without the noir edge that Rob Thomas brought to his show. Being that I am merely a wannabe, his was the better show.

Cupid is the story of a man who believes he is the Roman God of love, exiled from Mt. Olympus, who must put together one hundred couples (of the true love, happily ever after variety) before the other gods will let him come back. So he begins his quest in the grandest way, trying to help a guy who traveled from Ireland to New York find a woman he only met for 20 minutes. They do so by lighting a sign to her under the ball drop in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. This gets Cupid arrested and sentenced to 90 days in a mental institute where he meets Dr. Claire McCrae. Upon release (he pretends his name is Trevor – or is it pretend?), he gets invited to her singles group, where he brings his friend Dave, who is looking for the mysterious Holly. Cupid(Trevor) asks them all to the bar where he works for a singles’ karaoke sing along. There, he gets another single, Madeline, to write an article about Dave’s quest. Madeline and Dave start falling for each other, but Cupid pushes Dave to continue searching for Holly. Although it was a big moment when Dave and Holly finally meet, things don’t work out quite the way we expect.

Rob Thomas’ writing was stamped all over this show. The dialogue was clever, the characters clicked (you could almost see the magic happening when this week’s couple were singing karaoke, even as you hoped he would find his “true love” Holly), the story progressed, we had our moment of worry and our moment of relief. There were some awkward moments, but they were not overly so and were only slight distractions in the grand scheme of things. I know, because I’m a sucker for this stuff, that I had an emotional reaction when Madeline sees the travel agency at the end. That, to me, is vintage (can you say vintage for a concept (RT’s writing) less than 10 years old) Rob Thomas.

I didn’t think I would like Bobby Cannavale as Cupid, but I was sure that I would like Sarah Paulson as the psychiatrist. I think it will be fun watching them fall in love, watching Cupid get his Psyche. In the end, I did like Cannavale. It almost didn’t happen, but when the peg moves at the end… yeah, we had an actor/viewer moment. It was beautiful. The chemistry between the two are just right. I think we feel as if we know Paulson’s character, Dr. Claire McCrae, will eventually hook up with Cannavale’s Cupid, but the start now, being in contention, growing into friendship, leading into love… it’s being done well. By the time they move into the love category, if Thomas decides to give this show a shelf life (if it’s not given one for him), we will be ready for it and it will be a moment to finally exhale for us. Yes, I think Thomas is that good.

I have to say that I loved the story, from the “Holly I’m Here” in lights on New Year’s Day to Cupid convincing the psych ward (nurses and attendants included) to join in a rousing rendition of the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love”, the show was fun and lighthearted while at the same time tackling some serious issues, issues that face most of us. So many of us are dealing with the concept of finding true love and the fear that we will never find it. Cupid is about hope that it can happen, it will happen.

I’m not one hundred percent sure about his boss or the sister (although I like the actress), but if the romances are like the one from the first episode (not in exactness, but the heartwarming, gut-twisting, hoping the right people get together way) then I know I will be fully on board.

I know some people don’t like Sarah Paulson, but I enjoy her acting. I cared about what she cared about. If I were a psychiatrist and had worked hard to get people to be honest about love (in my opinion), then I would behave like her if someone like Bobby Cannavale’s Cupid showed up to wreck all the concepts I’d grown to know worked. Surprisingly, I like the intermingling of Claire’s ideas and Cupid’s ideas working together.

I hardly ever fawn this much over a show, but I’m a sucker for a love story and if you keep giving me one, I’ll keep watching. I’m excited about the next episode and if this keeps up, I’ll have another Rob Thomas show to add to my DVR.