TV: “Surface,” NBC’s Alien Show, Sinks
By stephanie - Tuesday, September 20th, 2005
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.
September 22nd, 2005 at 5:59 pm
I’m not quite as down on Surface.
I do agree that the premier episode left much to be desired, but it was a good set up for a nice mystery-sci/fi type of story.
I’m going to give it another episode to capture my attention before I chalk it up to a failed “Lost” clone.
December 19th, 2005 at 4:56 pm
Dont expect instant gradification! Let the story line play out. We have enjoyed it every week and it has left us wanting to know what will happen the following week. It would be a disapointment to end now we have been tuning in every week to see what will happen next. When will it preview again, thats what I want to know.
February 6th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
I think the show rocks! I hope it returns.
April 1st, 2006 at 5:43 pm
I loved it i hope it comes back. I think it was compleatly different. Most are just about alians coming down and taking people away or about people building machines or something but this one is different it’s about something that could be real. An animal and very NOW…