USA Network is a true success story using a formula that seems to serve them well - unique characters in semi-comedic situations with some drama bits tossed in to keep things interesting - a true TV salad.
“Necessary Roughness” uses this same formula to good effect. Like predecessors “Burn Notice,” “Monk,” “Psyche,” and “In Plain Sight,” etc. NR works on many levels as long as you don’t take it too seriously.
The funny and sexy Callie Thorne plays Danielle (Dani) Santino who is a psychotherapist undergoing a life-changing moment when she discovers that her husband of fiftteen years (Craig Bierko) is cheating on her - again (“Six women in thirteen years isn’t a mistake, it’s a life style”.) She throws him out (the requisite tossing-clothing-out-of-the-bedroom- window scene - that’s how you know she’s serious,) begins a painful divorce and expands her practice through a series of (wink-wink) events that find her in bed with a trainer for a professional football team.
The New York “Hawks” have a bad-boy, star, wide receiver who is dropping footballs. Their “million-dollar asset” needs a head doctor - actually another one - to figure him out. The first one, a Haw-vaad trained shrink left in miserable defeat, the bad-boy being too much for him to handle. But Dani can do it - she’s spunky, you know - and she’s sexy (”I’m a licensed psychotherapist, not a hooker.) so maybe Terrence King (Mehcad Brooks) known as T. K. (yeah, Terrell Owens comes first to mind) will resonate with her and allow her to pry the top off his brain to probe his dark secrets. See, she’s good - really good. After only one hypnotherapy session, the hunky trainer (Marc Blucas) who she bedded a few weeks after her separation from her husband, has not smoked a cigarette in seven days. Proof enough. Bring Mrs. MILF to the sports complex and hand her the keys to the kingdom.
Don’t dig too deeply into the whys and wherefors of the premise or the storyline - none of the USA fair has a particular debt to veracity and it’s really not necessary to the enjoyment of this - or any of their series offerings. We know there are sports psychologists who work with these elite athletes - and, in fact, this show is inspired by the real Donna Dannenfelser, a Long Island housewife-turned-therapist. She is credited with helping the New York Jets improve their game. Wonder if she had anything to do with coach Rex Ryan’s admitting his foot fetish last season?
Callie Thorne is terrific (even if her character is a little scattered) and brings a lot of the crazy she exhibited on “Rescue Me” to this series. She has the requisite weight to carry the show and she’s helped along with some interesting but not terribly unique co-cast members including her mother (Concetta Tomei) and kids (son, Patrick Johnson and daughter, Hannah Marks.) Son is doing okay but daughter is rebellious and self-destructive, mom is a nut, blah, blah, blah.
The psychotherapy parts feel too touchy-feely to me and not particular real. But, again, how true is “Burn Notice” or “Monk” and I watched them for a few seasons until the weight of all the nonsense created too heavy of a reason not to.
As a huge fan of "Friday Night Lights" I was expecting more actual football but it was only given a hand wave in the pilot which disappointed me. But I do like Ms Thorne a great deal - she was some of the best parts of the sometimes insanely good “Rescue Me” and will watch it hoping it grows in all the directions it’s lacking at this point.
“Necessary Roughness” plays on USA Networks on Wednesdays at 10:00pm.
