TV REVIEW : ‘Almost Grown’ Almost Arrives With 2-Hour Promo Sunday Night

Beware of two-hour previews whose purpose is to promote one-hour series. There’s no guarantee that the advertisement reflects the product.

Such is the case with the CBS drama “Almost Grown,” which arrives at 9 p.m. Sunday on Channels 2 and 8, in advance of Monday’s unpreviewed 10 p.m. premiere of “Almost Grown” the series.

The CBS strategy calls for initially giving “Almost Grown” the gift of following Sunday’s popular “Murder, She Wrote” as a two-hour movie in hopes of building interest in the new series before its Monday debut in its regular time.

Sunday’s “Almost Grown” is sometimes interesting, yet more often slow and uncompelling as it introduces its troubled protagonists, Norman and Suzie Foley (Timothy Daly and Eve Gordon). They meet as rock ‘n’ rolling teen-agers in the ‘60s, later sample counterculture rebellion and marry, then divorce and face a crisis concerning their teen-age daughter Anya (Ocean Helman) on the morning of Suzie’s scheduled marriage to physician Bob Keyes (Malcolm Stewart).

Clearly, Norman’s and Suzie’s lives will continue to intertwine, and Daly and Gordon do nicely in their roles once relieved of the burden of playing 16-year-olds. Moreover, the opening script by co-creators David Chase and Lawrence Konner is sporadically appealing and witty.

Threaded by rock music, though, Sunday’s “Almost Grown” offers the trimmings and glibly speaks the language of the times without providing any insights.

But this is just the advertisement. Now on to the series.