Here's my take on three of the new series which premiered this week:
I really, really wanted to like The Event, but I was disappointed. Before it aired, the series was touted as containing the mysteriousness of Lost and the pace of 24. But it felt like it tried way too hard—both in trying to harness those elements and, at the same time, differentiate itself from those cultural giants. There were way too many characters, too many points of view, and too much skipping around time. By the end, I didn’t care anything about any of the people or the issues or themes the story raised, even though I wanted to . I think part of what made series like Lost and 24 succeed is that they engaged us in the mystery and suspense through limited point of view—at least at first. The editor in me was dying to take a pen to the script, and that doesn’t bode well for how long this series will last on our DVR . The only thing that makes me give it one more chance is the sci-fi moment at the very end. Curiously, that element may not have even been in the original package, as the whole sci-fi element was supposedly added later at the request of the studio execs.
A remake of the longrunning 1970s series, Hawaii Five-0 re-imagines the classic Hawaiian special crime task force. While I didn’t think there’s anything Emmy worthy of this pilot, it was (mostly) fun to watch. There were some lame moments, but also some good ones. Oddly, the pilot also gave me a weird momentary flashback to Miami Vice, in a scenery eye-candy and eye-rolling Crockett-smolder kind of way. But it was good to see both Daniel Dae Kim (Lost) and Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica) back on screen, though I hope their characters get more screen time in the future. The series is staying on the DVR for now—unless my husband gets bored with it, in which case it’ll be replaced by the following show.
I must admit, I wasn’t even going to watch Chase until I started hearing good things about it from my tweeps on Twitter—and after watching the pilot, I think it’s probably the best of the three I've seen. For now, I’ll have to watch Chase on Hulu, because our DVR is already at its limit recording the returning (and favorite of this blogger) Castle and the aforementioned Hawaii 5-O in the same time slot.
A procedural crime drama, Chase focuses on Annie Frost and her fellow Texan U.S. Marshalls. The pilot was well-paced and kept my attention. I particularly appreciated the gradual way the writers revealed Annie’s back story, so that by the end of the episode I actually cared about her and the way she did her job. I also loved the way Annie uses the bad things that happened to her as a child to help her do good things—work towards justice, catch the bad guys and protect the innocent—in the present. It echoes that biblical truths of redemption and how God transforms and works all things—even that which is intended for evil—for good in our own Story. Hmm, maybe The Event will get cancelled and they’ll move Chase into that time slot so I won’t have to watch it with Hulu’s commercial breaks.
(Images: NBC and CBS, the last two via Wikipedia)
I really, really wanted to like The Event, but I was disappointed. Before it aired, the series was touted as containing the mysteriousness of Lost and the pace of 24. But it felt like it tried way too hard—both in trying to harness those elements and, at the same time, differentiate itself from those cultural giants. There were way too many characters, too many points of view, and too much skipping around time. By the end, I didn’t care anything about any of the people or the issues or themes the story raised, even though I wanted to . I think part of what made series like Lost and 24 succeed is that they engaged us in the mystery and suspense through limited point of view—at least at first. The editor in me was dying to take a pen to the script, and that doesn’t bode well for how long this series will last on our DVR . The only thing that makes me give it one more chance is the sci-fi moment at the very end. Curiously, that element may not have even been in the original package, as the whole sci-fi element was supposedly added later at the request of the studio execs.A remake of the longrunning 1970s series, Hawaii Five-0 re-imagines the classic Hawaiian special crime task force. While I didn’t think there’s anything Emmy worthy of this pilot, it was (mostly) fun to watch. There were some lame moments, but also some good ones. Oddly, the pilot also gave me a weird momentary flashback to Miami Vice, in a scenery eye-candy and eye-rolling Crockett-smolder kind of way. But it was good to see both Daniel Dae Kim (Lost) and Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica) back on screen, though I hope their characters get more screen time in the future. The series is staying on the DVR for now—unless my husband gets bored with it, in which case it’ll be replaced by the following show.I must admit, I wasn’t even going to watch Chase until I started hearing good things about it from my tweeps on Twitter—and after watching the pilot, I think it’s probably the best of the three I've seen. For now, I’ll have to watch Chase on Hulu, because our DVR is already at its limit recording the returning (and favorite of this blogger) Castle and the aforementioned Hawaii 5-O in the same time slot.A procedural crime drama, Chase focuses on Annie Frost and her fellow Texan U.S. Marshalls. The pilot was well-paced and kept my attention. I particularly appreciated the gradual way the writers revealed Annie’s back story, so that by the end of the episode I actually cared about her and the way she did her job. I also loved the way Annie uses the bad things that happened to her as a child to help her do good things—work towards justice, catch the bad guys and protect the innocent—in the present. It echoes that biblical truths of redemption and how God transforms and works all things—even that which is intended for evil—for good in our own Story. Hmm, maybe The Event will get cancelled and they’ll move Chase into that time slot so I won’t have to watch it with Hulu’s commercial breaks.
(Images: NBC and CBS, the last two via Wikipedia)