Touch
Watching the series premiere of
Touch, I had to work awfully hard to get past two things. One is that after eight years of Kieffer Sutherland playing Jack Bauer, it's hard to see him in a different television role. The other is that it's hard to get over the disappointment about how quickly
Heroes squandered its potential. And since
Touch is from the mind of Tim Kring, it will take a couple of more episodes to really get past that.
But, so far, I have to admit the idea is intriguing enough and I want to see more. Hopefully, Fox will repeat this pilot episode when the series returns in March. It feels like one of those shows where recalling details will be critical and a month and a half is long time to forget some of the pilot elements that may have an impact in the overall run of the series.
Alcatraz
As the commercials keep reminding me, J.J. Abrams is in charge of this. And while the show is trying awfully hard to be cut from the same cloth as
Lost, it's not quite as immediately compelling as Lost. Of course, I have to remind myself that while
Lost was good out of the gate, it wasn't until the first Locke episode that it went from an interesting show to I will never miss an episode ever again type of show.
I think the show needs to find a better balance from being a hybrid of a procedural (wacky criminal from the past comes forward and we investigate) and the overall long-term mythology of things (why did they all vanish? What is Sam Neill's role in all of this? Why did the female doctor who got shot not age? Why the underground facility?) I certainly hope the series learned a lesson or two from Lost in that we get answers just as often as we get new questions. Piling on too many questions may not work in the long term--at least not without a bit more investment in the characters.
But again, I'm intrigued enough to add it to the DVR rotation and watch a few more episodes. It's produced by J.J. Abrams and that gives me hope.
Labels: alcatraz, touch, tv round-up
posted by Michael Hickerson at 1/27/2012 01:47:00 PM |
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