"October Road" Not Taken

Just watched 45 minutes of the first (1 hr) episode of a new show called October Road. It's been on for two weeks and I was planning on watching the first two eps in one sitting. Now, thanks to a really bad show, I just got 1:15 of my life back (and I'd still like the other 45 min).

I wanted to like the show, and I have no problem with the idea of man returns home to confront those left behind, but I didn't feel for any of the characters and as it progressed, I just got more and more upset with how disjointed everything seemed.

1) The music was ALL wrong. The opening takes place in 1997 but everyone is lip syncing to an old Boston song ("Don't Look Back"), which was a hit in the 70s (I think). And one of the guys is playing air guitar with a WOODEN tennis racket... quick, get that out of his hands and put it in a museum, 'cause it's gotta be the last wooden racket out there!
The music issues continue through out what I saw of the first ep. There's Gin Blossoms and early Collective Soul in what is supposed to be modern day. Please was the music budget so small they had to get rights to old one-hit wonder songs. I know the songs were lyrically relevant but it just disoriented the setting of the show.
I also didn't like the Kurt Cobain poster in 1997... seemed a little out of time as he died in 94 and a fifteen year old girl (in 94) may have moved on to someone else by the time she was 18 (in 97).

2) The dialog. Mostly sucked, but the stuff from the little kid was downright laughable... even Dawson and Joey would have done a double-take on this kid.

3) Plot... predictable. If the characters were more interesting, I might not have minded seeing them in these situations.

There were other issues, but I don't care anymore... one less show to watch, just leaves more time for writing this blog :)