We could really use a great rom-com right about now. With The Baker and the Beauty, we get a decent one.
The Baker and the Beauty, the U.S. adaptation of a wildly popular Israeli dramedy, premieres Monday at 10 p.m. ET on ABC and has a couple of things to recommend it.
The first is winning performances by Nathalie Kelley (top) as Noa Hamilton, a ridiculously rich and famous international supermodel, and Victor Rasuk (top) as Daniel Garcia, son of a close-knit Cuban family that runs a Miami bakery.
You see where The Baker and the Beauty title is coming from.
For a plotline, the show dusts off one of the most reliable feel-good fantasies in the history of storytelling: A person from the upper class develops a relationship with a person from the lower class.
Among other things, this can be counted on to arouse puzzlement and disbelief among friends on both sides.
It provides writers with a smorgasbord of class-divide dramas, drawing on the very different customs and ways in these very different worlds.
In the end, it can either deliver the inspiring message that love conquers all, or it can take the cooler, some would say the more realistic view that love is not always enough to bridge the gulf between those who live in a world of too much and those who live in a world of just about enough.
The Baker and the Beauty is an undetermined number of episodes away from having to grapple with anything like resolution. It starts at the beginning – a very good place to start – by bringing Noa and Daniel together through an amusing series of random events.
When we meet Daniel, his expressive mother, Mari (Lisa Vidal), his father, Rafael (Carlos Gómez), his sister Natalie (Belissa Escobedo), and his close-pal, brother Mateo (David Del Rio) are all gently pushing him to propose to his long-time girlfriend Vanessa (Michelle Veintimilla).
He's taking her to a fancy restaurant for their anniversary dinner. He likes her. But about the marriage part, he's hesitant, and the evening doesn't go quite as either expected.
It includes one stretch, exactly 45 seconds long, which may be the most awkward 45 seconds all year on a television screen.
Because it's a fancy restaurant, Noa is there, eating with her entourage at another table. She and Daniel run into each other, in an odd place, and things cascade from there.
Vanessa remains involved. The Garcia family remains involved. We meet Lewis (Dan Bucatinsky), Noa's personal assistant, whose mission is to keep her from getting too wild and crazy while protecting her from people with whom he knows things will not work out.
We're reminded, repeatedly, that because she is an internationally famous supermodel, she is followed everywhere. It isn't clear whether Noa herself can draw a line between her celebrity life and any life outside the reach of social media, and that uncertainty gives an interesting edge to the budding relationship with Daniel.
The premise of The Baker and the Beauty telegraphs, it's true, that there will be some sort of relationship, meaning the will they/won't they question will be resolved relatively soon, and the show's ongoing plotline will have to focus more on its consequences.
That's the sort of story that, frankly, has often been explored and wrapped up nicely in a two-hour movie. Sustaining over multiple episodes is more of a challenge, though the original Israeli series – which is available with subtitles on Amazon – has navigated those waters well.
So we just don't know. But we like them, so we're rooting for them.