The family and I have been enjoying two summer series on one of the cable channels. (I had a hard enough time typing out the old network name; there’s no way I’m misspelling an already-atrocious term.)
My friend Lee recommends Eureka. According to my wife, I recommended it too a few years ago. She doesn’t miss an episode, while I checked out of most of seasons two and three. The episodes are enjoyable enough, but I have a hard time giving a high endorsement. The writing is poor and contrived at times. I like the whimsy behind the series, and the sheriff holding his own in the town of geniuses, but I’ve never warmed to the huge ensemble cast seemingly going nowhere. You’d think with all the smart people in town, they could avoid some of the crazy mishaps.
More my cup of tea is Warehouse 13 and the direction the series seems to be taking as the first season finishes up. The cast is not nearly as large and there’s more time to explore fewer characters. The whimsy is there: the arms of Venus de Milo, Edgar Allen Poe’s pen, and Alice in a looking glass. But having a recurring villain that provides real menace is a huge lift to the drama. There’s a better balance to the new show.
18 September 2009 at 7:41 am
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (out today in IMAX 3D, book out 30 years ago) is a Eureka precursor, with a madcap invention going haywire and disrupting the town.
Actually, that is a classic storyline, with donut machines, flubber, time machines, potions, computers and more going haywire over the years; I guess it is even the backstory for each object in Warehouse 13. I like how Eureka handles it, as an everyday instance of Murphy’s Law, no matter how bizarre.