Does Necessary Roughness Deserve To Convert For An Extra Point Or Something? Football?

Show: Necessary Roughness

Premiered: Summer 2011

Why Was It Made? As is its wont, USA came up with a premise in which an attractive person did a glamorous job...with a twist! In this case, the attractive person was Dani Santino (Callie Thorne), the job was therapy, and the twist was...for the players on an NFL team! Maybe men will watch! But probably not.

Why Did I Stop Watching? I am pretty into all the frothy USA dramas, so I gave the pilot a shot, but ultimately the sportsiness of it, combined with Callie Thorne's native flintiness, put me off. Under other circumstances, I might have hung on if Dani's outfits had been really cute (readers of our Friday Time-Shift Show feature will know I'm not kidding about that), but they were super-dull. Even in the scene when she went out to a discothèque!

Why Give It Another Shot? It's summer. And I'm recording Royal Pains anyway.

What Aspects Of The Latest Episode Would Seem To Invite Further Viewing? This seems to be as close to a total reboot as most USA shows ever get: when the Hawks (the fictional football team Dr. Dani had been working for) get a new GM/Head Coach (David Andrews), she sasses him and he fires her on the spot; T.K. (Mehcad Brooks) has quit the team (though he later returns0; and Matthew (Marc Blucas) is fleeing the ruins of his relationship with Dani for a new job in Boston. As for Dani: she's starting a new job as in-house therapist at V3, a sports management company...led by JOHN STAMOS! And also David Anders from Alias, doing his real accent for once. Intrigue: Nico (Scott Cohen) got Dani in the door at V3 for what seemed to be a one-off consultation, but now she's working there full-time even as Nico is apparently embedded there as part of a federal investigation! Dun! It doesn't even seem to matter that I missed the first two seasons because all that shit just went out the window anyway. Even Dani's outfits have improved!

What Aspects Of The Latest Episode Discourage Further Viewing? All the sports. In the premiere, Dani transitions from football to baseball. Why couldn't it have been cheerleading?!

Final Verdict: Maybe there's a woman alive who can resist John Stamos. I am not she.