Relationship a little far-fetched

Rashida Jones and Steven Moyer, who play Edie and Mike in NY-LON.

Yes, I thought it was something to do with stockings, too. But it's not Nylon, it is, and how cute is this, NY-LON (tonight, 9.30, TV2).

If you (and me) were in any doubt about what NY-LON means it becomes irritatingly clear once the thing begins: New York to London, by plane, is what NY-LON is all about.

There's this pommy bloke, see, and this New York chick, and they meet by chance because she gets her bag nicked while on holiday in London and then, in search of a payphone, meets him in a good old London boozer. After much ado about her asking to buy a fag (she's only got 53p left, which he takes) she goes away with fag and not a second thought.

Except that he's let her use his cellphone because the pub phone won't allow you to call cellphones and the public phone outside is broken. This is a plot development which allows the writers to have New York chick say, "F*** you, you stupid Third World country." And also to have him give her some money so that she will need his address to pay him back, and so on.

But, ha ha, there's a twist (well, about 50 twists actually, in last week's first episode.) Because he's a Flash Harry, stockbroking wheeler-dealer sort who lives in a flash apartment and she's an impoverished teacher who teaches poor people and also works in a record shop so that she can afford the rent on her near-slum NY apartment.

It's not a bad idea, this, for a telly drama. And it will, hopefully, gather steam now the rather laboured chance meeting - eyes met across a fuggy London pub - and the introduction to the characters is in place.

But last week was a bit overcooked. NY-LON is obviously meant to be a bit cutting edge, which means the use of split-screen scenes. So when she's in a taxi after leaving his place we got to see him at his place, in bed, finding her earring, which he then decides to deliver to her place in NY, and so on.

Neither of the main characters, Edie or Mike, are particularly lovable. He's a stockbroker forced to deliver nearly undeliverable lines like these on the art of stockbroking: "Only the most feral and pitiless will emerge from the toxic sludge with enough money to look in the mirror when they're 50 ... I love it."

She's the kind of girl who gets to deliver lines like these: "I'm not the kind of girl who loses control and ends up doing stupid s*** with every guy she just met in a bar."

So he's a rat and she's on her high horse and of course they ended up in the sack together.

The first episode took a very long time - and took us on a route of ridiculous coincidences - to set this up, but Edie and Mike are quite possibly irritating enough to last the distance.