New TV: Surface, Prison Break, Bones (2nd Chance)





Threshold has higher production values and a better cast, and Invasion is more focused, but of the three alien invasion TV shows we’ve got this season I like Surface the best, at least judging by the three pilots. The other two are just glosses on Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which we've seen done on TV numerous times, but Surface is part of a different b-movie tradition. It's basically a good old fashioned monster movie done as a serial.

I'm a whore for sea monster movies anyway, so the show has a head-start at pleasing me just by featuring the premise of giant whale-like animals suddenly appearing in our oceans. We don't know much about them so far, except that they are very large (200 ft. plus), possibly hostile, and look vaguely like manatees. They appear to go through many life stages, and when young they may be able to spend a lot of time on land. I'm also wondering if they are going to be equated with mermaids at some point. Some people seem to think they will start impersonating humans, but I'm not sure I'm buying that.

So far the show has been following three different people whose lives have been affected by the creatures. These include a biologist in California who has a close encounter with one in a sub, a diver in Louisiana whose brother was killed by one, and a young boy in North Carolina who has captured a juvenile creature. It isn't at all clear how these characters will come together in any lasting way.

As my friend Freeman pointed out, Time pointed out that this series is pretty much a smash-and-grab of situations and characters Steven Spielberg used early in his career. That's certainly true of the first episode, but in the second things open up a little and we see a reference to Bradbury's "The Foghorn."

Despite my best intentions, I've been enjoying FOX's Prison Break. It isn't remotely plausible, but the acting is good and every episode is suspenseful. I just fear it will become like 24 and become nothing but a mechanical suspense generator.

I decided to give Bones another chance, and gave up a few minutes into the third episode. At some point they introduced Zack (or else I blocked him out of my memory of the first episode), the most annoying nerd since that guy in Laserblast. Add to that some of the support team getting way to excited about the prospect that some might get murdered so they'd have interesting case, and I decided to bail.

Posted: Tue - September 27, 2005 at      

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