I thought the show wasn’t terrible. I’m hoping it will be like Fringe where it seemed like monster/criminal of the week and eventually lead to a really interesting overarching storyline.
This was clearly explained. The presence of dead crows which had also been shot dead before the people was his trademark. It is not unreasonable to assume that all nearby crimes are being monitored, and that those with signatures like this will be responded to.
Well, in the first episode Neil took over the scene and the investigation. Perhaps that happens for all related crimes.
I’ve been to San Francisco two or three times and I have no idea whether there is any forest nearby. How many people would really be able to pick this out? And who is to say that he isn’t flown somewhere and then drives the rest of the way?
I don’t think this series is that promising, but to me most of the points made in this thread picking holes in the episodes so far aired, are picking at straws that don’t really matter or are subjective. But then… having recently watched the fantastically unbelievable nonsense that is Sherlock, I probably cut anything I watch that isn’t nearly as lame a lot more slack.
I forgot the crows. But much of the show was forgettable. :)
There is forest like that 1-2 hours north of SF along the coast. I did wonder about the bullet wound the prisoner took that seemed healed by the time he reached the new prison.
Didn’t they use a SF adjacent forest in the new Planet of the Apes?
I watched it and it seemed decent, at least worth following up on.
As for the complaints about the stories, there’s nothing preventing them from taking a break from the “prisoner of the week” story to have an episode that deals with the overarching story. Or even having an episode set in the past Alcatraz. Plus there’s the whole “my grandpa killed my partner” angle which they can work into the season.
The main detective seems likable enough, and Hurley has a lot of goodwill, so I could see me watching this for a while, unless the stories get really predictable (like the old “lets have the cops break into this room while interspersing scenes of the bad guy sitting in a room which of course isn’t the room they’re breaking into”. That was pretty obvious).
The whole “Alcatraz lookalike” prison at the end just makes me think Sam Neill is a crazy dude, though.
Nobody’s pointed it out yet, so I figured I might: there is a huge focus on keys. There are tons of them, even shots that linger almost longingly on a key or multiple keys, which I’m sure we’ll find out the meaning behind it soon enough (yeah right, I know your game Abrams, suck it!).
I called Lucy as soon as she said “with him or without him” and even had major suspicions when Hauser told her she always wanted kids. But, hey, this will be fun; the key to it all: keys. Subtle!
The guy clearly had a large white bandage on his hand.
You know, maybe the show isn’t so flawed if you actually pay some attention to it?
Don’t believe the hype from people telling you that Terra Nova is the primary competition for this show. It’s not, for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that Terra Nova has to be renewed within the next month at the very latest to actually be done in time for the Fall, and that won’t even give Fox sweeps numbers to work with in making their decision, and no data at all for Touch beyond the tainted pilot preview. They already extended their contract with Avatar Guy and Jason O’Mara, so my personal theory is that they’re going to end up renewing it one way or another, though maybe for the same 13 episode season.
I do think it was nice for the show to put one of those Dharma bunkers to use for their little prison front. Sustainable Abrams.
I didn’t hate the show. It’s easily better than quite a lot of the premiers this past year. I’m in for as long as it’s on, if it doesn’t whiz the whole thing down its leg. Going in, I was expecting it to be more like Fringe in the first year, and it totally is, but of all the various Abrams shows that he’s actually been even adjacent to (meaning that we’re excluding the CBS stuff) that were supposed to be procedural, I think that this one might be the most solid. Deena Pilgrim there should probably button up her top if that’s not supposed to be a character thing she’s doing (otherwise she’s making it harder to take her seriously as a serious detective doing serious business), and I could sit here and pick nits all day because I’m pretty good at that, but ultimately, I’m glad it’s on the air.
That was the second prisoner, not the first. The first had no bandages on him.
Dude, that was far from the biggest inconsistency with the first prisoner. The fact that he was just walking with a slight limp after getting shot in the chest maybe two camera cuts after, you know, getting shot in the chest was where that train jumped the track.
Dammit, this is what I get for being snarky. Apologies.
Pilot didn’t blow me away and the acting is often fairly bad. The first prisoner in the pilot took that bullet to the chest with aplomb.
This show isn’t anywhere near great so I could see interest fading over the next month or two.
Accepted. It’s not like I never make mistakes. :)
Really? The acting didn’t strike me as worse than any other procedural show and it was considerably better than the often terrible performances delivered on Criminal Minds, for instance.
The show is interesting enough but it didn’t stand out as anything special. The JJ Abrams mythology crap is almost certainly going to keep from really committing to it beyond a semi-interesting procedural though. It’s the same with any show like this though. Even if they provide answers they’re always going to ask a bigger question until the show gets canceled. Ultimately it’s all utterly meaningless so I can’t bring myself to care about any of it. The serialized stuff on Burn Notice is the same thing. They solve something at the end of every season and then they come up with something even bigger to take its place. After a few seasons of that it’s just meaningless crap. I wish the procedural part of the show was a little more compelling because I’d have no problem dealing with the mythology garbage if it was.
Inconsistency or clue? You don’t mean to tell me you’ve ruled out superhuman mutants already?
He did have super cop shooting powers that the episode would have logically ended if he didn’t have (I’m not encouraging you to go out and try to shoot two police officers, but I am betting that if you did, you probably wouldn’t win as cleanly as he did), but I went ahead and just chalked that up to awkward scripting early in the show.
I would actually be cool with mutant powers, if that’s where the show decides it needs to go after it gets done with its six pilots, Fringe style. It’s be a little 4400 according to what I understand of that show, but I’m game.
I’ve never seen Criminal Minds but I will grant you that this holds steady to the acting bar set by many procedurals. I don’t really watch most procedurals past a few episodes because the acting is so bad a lot of the time (or there is a decent performance or two but the side characters blow).
It wasn’t convincing at all.
Looked like CSI with LOST style screenplay and music, doing both poorly. Really, in the second episode the guy was shooting at random 16 years old girls, along a bunch of other truly random victims, solely because he’d identify them with his imaginary sister? And they arrive to this through DEDUCTION? It was as believable as seeing someone of the TV staff come into the scene and pass the woman a note with the solution.
It’s like 95% procedural and 5% mystery. The mystery is weak and the procedural rather bad. Garcia plays his role fine, but his role is completely pointless and only as support to the woman (he even says it himself at the end of the second part, but the script writers will surely make him perform more awesome “deductions” so that he’ll look indispensable). Woman that is completely unbelievable on the role with her cutesy and delicate face and completely UNABLE to express any hardship or strong feelings. The worst reaction she could provoke is make you want give her a hug.
I guess Abrams has his feet in so many projects now that he couldn’t care less if something like Fringe goes to shit. Both Hollywood and television love him and he’d always have his other gigs to really care about anything specifically. Success leads to pampering, and suck.