five seasons from now, you might get to kiss david tennant. // getty images

The love interest for David Tennant’s American series has been cast; Sophia will be played by actress Lindsey Kraft, an actress so undiscovered, she doesn’t even have a bio on IMDb.  She’s been in some things, but nothing even as mainstream as a playing a victim on Law & Order.  I’ve been waiting for weeks to find out who would be playing Sophia, and I’m neither surprised nor disappointed that they’ve chosen an obscure young actress for the part.  With a loudmouth cast including David Tennant, Jeffrey Tambor, Jane Curtin, and now Jerry O’Connell, this pilot didn’t need more recognizable names.

It’s also become pretty standard lately to cast established actors against fresh-faced actresses.  Just look at Castle‘s Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic, Bones‘s David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel, Lost‘s Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly, Fringe‘s Joshua Jackson and Anna Torv, Grey’s Anatomy‘s Patrick Dempsey and Ellen Pompeo, and so on and so forth.

Literally the only thing I can say about her–I can’t judge her talent or her chemistry with David or anything–is that she looks quite young.  But then again, that’s pretty standard these days, too.

But she’s also adorable and I’m growing more and more excited for this pilot–I’m notoriously bad at this sort of thing, but it’s been getting enough press than unless the pilot blows hard, it looks like a good pick for a pick-up.

Meanwhile, a funny story.  The article in which this info was reported was titled, “Jerry O’Connell to co-star in NBC pilot.”  I was immediately terrified that this meant he’d been cast as the lead in J.J. Abrams’s Undercovers, the spy dramedy which shouldn’t touch Jerry O’Connell with a ten-foot pole.  Clicking in, though, I realized he’d replaced the dude from Heroes, Sendhil Ramamurthy, who backed out at the last minute due to scheduling conflicts.

It was a good scare, though.

Earlier this week, we heard that Abigail Spencer, who I knew as “That Girl Who Killed Her Brother in the Bones Episode ‘The Man in the Mud,’” but who others know as “The Elementary School Teacher Who Recently Sexed Up Don Draper,” had been cast as a series regular on Rex, playing the title character’s fiancee.

I, the consummate shipper, was immediately intrigued.  See, usually when characters are introduced in the pilot as the significant other of the main character, we aren’t supposed to expect them to stay together for very long.  Often, said love interest is the villain.  (Terri Schuester. Enough said.)  And given Spencer’s history (read: the only two roles I could remember) as a sexy crazy person, I thought it was quite possible that she was merely a foil for the real ship.  Which was when I sought out the casting sides.

Turns out, I was totally right.

Lindsey, Rex’s ex-fiancee (notice the ex-), left when Rex had his nervous breakdown, the event precipitating the series, in which the hero, a lawyer, finds himself incapable of litigating and resorts to counseling legal clients to represent themselves.  He’s been reading her e-mail since the split, and she’s seeing someone new.  In the pilot, Rex and Lindsey see each other for the first time since their split, and things are heated.  He calls her out on her doofy new boyfriend, and it’s obvious that the two still have some serious feelings for each other (and whoa angst), but she also seems like kind of a bitch.  Oh, and she’s also an attorney, and in the pilot, she’s the one going up against Rex’s first new client.  Toward the end of the pilot, the two share a kiss.  The stage direction reads, “Lindsey looks into his eyes, searching for the man she fell in love with. Then she takes a breath, leans in and kisses him on the lips. It’s soft but intense. She pulls away.”  ANGST.

Okay, so there’s that.

But then, lurking in the shadows …

… in a place so subtle that takes a true devotee of television romance to pick it out of the script pages …

… is Sophia.

Very early in the pilot, we meet Rex’s colleague, Sophia.  She’s either his assistant or a paralegal or some other kind of legal profession that’s not “lawyer.”  The description calls her “26, uniquely appealing, opinionated about the world around her, independent and enthusiastic.”  I like her already.

Throughout the pilot, she’s supportive of Rex in his getting-his-life-back-together business, but she also doesn’t let him get away with any BS.  (She notes that it’s unbelievable that Rex still goes through Lindsey’s email.)  And at the end of the episode, it’s Sophia and Rex (ah, think of the portmanteau possibilities…) who we return to.  He’s obviously still intent on getting Lindsey back, and she may or may not be harboring a crush on her boss.  The last stage direction is, “Sophia smiles as Rex launches into another fabulous story as the bursting light of the sun engulfs them.”  Sweet, right?

So, yeah, I think it’s really promising that the series has set up what looks like a solid love triangle in episode one.  I could see how people would actually ship Rex/Lindsey (probably Skaters, although by that point it’ll be September and they might be changing their outlook on television by that point–teeheehee), and I can see how people would actually ship Rex/Sophia.  I’m very interested to see who gets cast in that part.

Beyond that, the show looks promising.  Likeable characters, a new twist on an old genre, and, well, David Tennant.  What more do you need?

Says the Hollywood Reporter,

“Arrested Development” alum Tambor will play Rex’s psychiatrist, a specialist in anxiety disorders who himself suffers from them and who also becomes romantically involved with Rex’s mother. 

EPIC WIN.  Also, now I really want to know who’s playing the mom.  (Hopefully from that casting we’ll be able to tell whether or not David will be using an American accent.)