If "October Road", "What About Brian", and "Brothers and Sisters" were decks of cards and you tossed them all up in the air, you'd never be able to reassemble them into separate decks. It's amazing, in a depressing way, that everyone is basically writing and producing the same show. ABC reacts to NBC who reacts to CBS and so on. I suspect the writers are going on strike to fight for their right to copy each other with complete impunity. Oh wait, they already seem to have that.

In this show, Nick Garrett (Bryan Greenberg) returns to his hometown after ten years, having written a best-selling book that casts a number of his friends in a rather negative light. Although the book idea is the springboard for the series, the show is little more than another drama about friends and relationships with nothing new to say. The writers side step insight in favor of what they think is are those little, clever dialogue moments that usually turn out to be nauseating.

Aside from the portrayals of his friends, Nick must also face his high school sweetheart, Hannah (Laura Prepon), whom he left ten years ago with promises of a quick return. Instead of returning, Nick disappeared and never called. Now that he's back, he finds Hannah a bit irritated and with a suspiciously aged, ten-year-old son. Naturally, Nick suspects he's the dad and befriends the kid in that "I'll be your friend until I find out I'm not your dad" sort of way.

Nick must apologize and rebuild his relationships with his high school chums. There appears to be nothing he can do with the George Clooney/Peter Krause love child, Eddie Latekka (Geoff Stults). Naturally, all these friends have those sort of idiosyncrasies that scream "we're in an hour drama series and we need to be really, really interesting." Eddie is tired of sleeping with gorgeous women and decides to go after a chubby, local waitress, Janet (Rebecca Field). Owen (Brad William Henke) is the first to forgive Nick because he's a chummy, fat guy. He's also married over his station, to the hot Alison (Elizabeth Bogush), who's facial expressions in the pilot scream "I'm sleeping with your best friend" so loud I had to cover my ears with tissue and duct tape. It appears to be mandatory in these hour-long dramas that somebody's wife is sleeping with somebody's best friend or wants to. Then there's Physical Phil (Jay Paulson), who hasn't left his house since September 11. He orders pizza from a cute delivery girl (Lindy Booth), who wants to hook up with him despite the fact he doesn't leave the house. Yeah, sure, that could happen.

"October Road" was a mid-season replacement, so there are only six episodes. It's one thing to compel an audience for six episodes. It's another thing to do it for a full season. What's going to happen in a full season? I suspect "October Road" will devolve into the ridiculous, or it will just copy what some of the other shows like it are doing?