Closet Sci-Fi Geek

TV: Aliens on the Tube, Take Two

Watched the second episodes of “Threshold” and “Invasion.” (I’ve decided to skip “Surface” completely for now unless I hear it’s getting really good.)

Threshold
Episode 2 of “Theshold” was a bit of a disappointment after the two-hour premiere. We are taken to a boy’s military academy where strange goings-on are afoot. Not promising. I’m always dubious about any shows involving possessed children.

At one point, a group of young cadets starts stalking Karen Sisko (or whatever the name of the female lead is). It was like something out of that old bad sci-fi movie with Christopher Reeve and Kirstie Alley…you know, the one with the identical blonde children who are running amok in a small town.

Such images aren’t even scary anymore; they are a joke. Also, the coordination between the main characters just didn’t seem to be there…things just didn’t seem to flow together at all. The team didn’t feel like a team to me…though of course they are still just getting to know each other in that fictional world. I think this might work better if the writers would slow it down a bit and stop trying to make the show non-stop action. Frankly, unless you’ve got a zillion dollar budget, non-stop action on TV is rarely done in an interesting fashion - real tension and horror needs to come from the psychological. This is why “Invasion” fared better this week.

Overall, this was a weak outing for the first “real” episode of “Threshold,” but the show is still promising.

Invasion
I missed the first 10 minutes of “Invasion,” which is too bad, because I got the sense that this was probably the most exciting part of Episode 2. However, I’m starting to like this show more. The intra-family dynamics, coupled with the “invaded” mom acting weirder all the time, are starting to get seriously creepy. In this episode, the previously overly protective mom actually leaves her children home alone all night (never coming home from the hospital). Later on she admits that the children just weren’t in her mind at all…and she’s as worried about this “oversight” as anyone is.

The Concerned Dad is turning into an interesting character (since he’s driven by many opposing forces in this series). It doesn’t hurt that he’s pretty darn hot too.

While I’m not sure how well this series is going to “scale” (to escalate the horror), it’s really starting to interest me. I’m looking forward to watching this story develop.

“Invasion” wins this round.

TV: Finally, ABC’s “Invasion”

Shaun Cassidy has been near and dear to my heart since…oh, I was 6 years old and he was a major 70s teenthrob.

I used to own his record and sang along with the “Do Ron Ron.” So imagine my surprise when pretty boy Shaun went beyond his cute feathered hair and started creating television shows. “American Gothic,” which premiered almost 10 years ago, was a fantastic, creepy show that was way before its time. Now he’s at it again with “Invasion,” ABC’s answer to this year’s alien theme.

“Invasion” starts off in a very timely manner, with a hurricane on its way to hitting Florida. (As I write this, Hurricane Rita has just strengthened into a killer Category 5 storm.) In the midst of all the hurricane chaos, we’ve got kids getting lost (trying to find the cat), family dramas (divorces and such), and strange lights falling into the everglades (spooky!).

“Invasion,” like NBC’s “Surface,” involves more kids and family drama than CBS’s alien show “Threshold.” Fortunately, “Invasion” somehow manages to exploit the broken family stereotypes without being too cloying or annoying.

Not a whole lot happens in the first episode of “Invasion” alien-wise…mostly it’s about the hurricane and some possibly creepy thing the geek brother found in the swamp. With only one truly scary moment but a lot of innuendo, “Invasion” seems to be paced more like ABC’s “Lost” than “Alias.”

Slow and steady pacing isn’t necessarily a bad thing…if Shaun’s previous works are any indication, there’s more weirdness to come.

Overall, I give “Invasion” a B+. “Threshold” tops of the list of the new shows, with “Surface” trailing way behind both. Ah well, two out of three ain’t bad.

TV: “Surface,” NBC’s Alien Show, Sinks

After a bright start to “Threshold,” I was wondering if NBC’s alien show “Surface” might keep up the pace. No such luck.

“Surface” appears to be about aliens or some sort of evolved creatures that come from the sea. It’s like a bad 70s rip-off of Jaws only not half as fun.

“Surface” started off in the worst way imaginable: It’s late one night, and a group of teenagers are partying it up out on Dad’s boat. A wakeboarder falls off his board, only to be spooked by some sort of sea monster.

Oh geez, how many times have we seen *this* scene before? It’s what I’d call the “Oblivious Teenagers Are About to Get Into Trouble” scene.

Now, this scene might have been vaguely interesting if someone actually got eaten up, ala Jaws, but no such luck. This extremely cliche and inauspicious beginning was just the start of more boring exposition, more belabored shots of people prepping to go out to sea from different locations, more annoying kids of varying ages, and yet…NOTHING REALLY HAPPENS.

Here we have a premiere episode, and you sit through half the show before something seriously bad happens! The first half-hour simply jumped from location to location, from the Antarctic to the Gulf Coast to California, with no rhyme or reason and no build up of any real tension whatsoever. Instead, we got introduced to a bunch of unrelated cardboard cut-out characers. Ho-hum.

“Surface” has another female lead like “Threshold,” and this time it’s Lake Bell, who if I am correct is that smarmy chick who is constantly throwing herself at James Spader in the Practice/Boston Legal. She’s a bit less annoying here but still over-eager. She’s also a single mom with an extremely obnoxious kid who adds nothing but whining to the story.

Couple that with a group of teenagers trying to find the “sea monster” and you can see why I almost shut this show off halfway through.

An LA Times reviewer actually liked “Surface” better than “Threshold” because he felt it was about “ordinary people involved in extraordinary events.” Yeah, right. If you want to call one-dimensional white stereotypes “ordinary people.” Okaaay.

“Surface” plays like it was made in 1982. Back then, as a kid, I probably would have loved it. Today, in 2005, it’s dated schmaltz. “Jaws meets the Abyss” might have worked 10 years ago, but not today.

I’ll pass on this one. Watching it actually made me miss “Threshold.”

Next, it’s ABC’s turn. Let’s hope they do better.

TV: “Threshold,” a New Alien Show Compliments of CBS

Apparently this is the season of alien invasion television. CBS leads the charge with “Threshold,” appearing on Friday nights from 9 to 10 pm. (ABC and NBC are due out with “Invasion” and “Surface” respectively.)

I got a chance to catch the two-hour premiere of “Threshold.” Lately, I’ve been underwhelmed by many new sci-fi shows (see my upcoming post about the new “Battlestar Galactica”) so I had extremely low expectations. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised.

“Threshold” stars Carla Gugino, who was previously the short-lived “Karen Sisco.” As a woman, I am often picky about my female leads - if they are too young, pretty and perky, I find them highly annoying. If they are too much ball-busting ice queen then they become an annoying stereotype in the opposite direction. Gugino finds that happy middle; she’s pretty but not annoyingly so, she’s smart but not frigid. Mostly, she’s actually pretty human, which is a relief.

The only female annoyance factor is actually the handsome midget (little person?) who is constantly sexual harassing her. (Sigh.) He may be a little person, but he’s a hot, womanizing, gambling little person. He’s one of what I’ll call the three mad scientists on the show who are part of the “Red Team” that go in first to identify the nature of the alien threat.

One of the other team members is played by Brent Spiner (our beloved Data from Star Trek), and it’s great to see him in a new role. Unfortunately, his voice is so distinct I have a hard time not imagining that it’s Data responding to all the dialogue. I suppose I’ll get used to it.

With a fairly strong cast, the show has a solid foundation on which to grow. In my opinion, sci-fi shows often either make it or break it depending on how really likeable or interesting the main characters are. Remember “Space: Above and Beyond?” Have any real remembrance of the crew? Ehhhh, kind of. I think there was a guy who was a clone or something and you could tell by the belly button on the back of his neck. Whoop-de-doo. And I would go out of my way to watch that show again…umm…rarely if ever. See my point?

I read a review of the show in the LA Times that complained about Threshold’s over-the-top characters, but I think the author really doesn’t get sci-fi. Sci-fi is *supposed* to be bigger than life. What would “Star Trek” have been without Scottie’s Scottishness or Kirk’s magnificent alien womanizing?

Beyond the cast, Threshold provides a sci-fi “movie-of-the-week” story line, including a possible fourth-dimensional alien invasion, mutations that respond to sound waves, and crop-circle-like patterns that show up everywhere the aliens have been. Fun stuff!

Nothing mindblowing, but all in all, highly entertaining fare, and interesting enough that I’ll be following this one to see what happens.