‘Made in Jersey’ first to go of new TV shows
Television isn’t fair.
It’s amazing how shows that are painfully bad — I’m talking about you “The Neighbors” — can stay on the air while others get canned. I’m not saying “Made in Jersey” was that good. It started with potential but that faded fast. But the CBS legal drama didn’t deserve to be the first cancelation of the fall TV season.
That honor should have gone to “Partners” or “Malibu Country.” Yes, I know “Malibu Country” hasn’t started yet but it should be canceled before it gets started.
Maybe I gave “Made in Jersey” more credit than it deserved because the show’s star, Janet Montgomery, is so nice. The British actress deserves a good show and it wasn’t this one.
Montgomery did give it her all trying to make sure her New Jersey character wasn’t a caricature.
“I think it’s about having the right mix of her being different from everyone else in this world, and that’s got to be obvious. But at the same time, people don’t want to see a caricature because then she’s not relatable and people can’t sit there and be, like, ‘she’s believable.’ Because there’s enough kind of like Jersey reality TV shows,” Montgomery said back when the show had hope of making it. “This isn’t a reality TV show. I’m English. I’m creating this character, but there’s so much that I’m putting in of myself.
“I come from a working class background in England, and I have a big family. And a lot of that sort of plays into I come from a world that’s so different from being sitting here right now I mean, my dad’s a postman, and my mom works in a post office that kind of two world reality is very similar to Martina’s, I think.”
Despite her best efforts the show has been canceled after only a few episodes. Maybe if she drank like a fish, had the morals of an alley cat and made a fool of herself at every turn — like a certain person on “The Jersey Shore” — the series would have lasted a few more months.