Well, the new fall season is almost, kinda under way in the sense that anything worth watching, doesn't go by the traditional schedule anyway. Galactica and the rest of the Friday line-up of beauty that is Sci-Fi Channel is wrapping up their season. 4400 already had their season finale. Galactica is next week. [Oh, Nap, when you say you're a Trekkie, and I say Michelle Forbes, you're supposed to know I mean "the lady who played Ensign Ro." I know we all can't know the name of EVERY cast member, but YOU'RE the deacon of DS9!]
Anyway. I tried my first NEW show of the NEW season... Surface. Formerly known as Fathom, until James Cameron pointed out to NBC that it ripped it's name off from a comic book, that was so along the line of things he likes, that he bought the movie rights to it and they better... well the show is called Surface. Surface... Fathom... NEITHER Title would make sense for this show. Water would have been more direct. The PERFECT TITLE: (any letter but X) Files of the Lost Alien Jaws from the Abyss of the Millennium! There are about a dozen other ones you could plug in there too. This isn't a complaint about the show...
Alright it is. This thing, well, based on it's first episode, doesn't feel like a LONG series. Am I going to be wishing it were a movie? A mini series? On Sci-Fi? (I heard a couple Yes' to the last two... good thinking guys!)
I usually don't talk about TV shows right away. They need some time to settle in... This one, I fear, needs to kick ass before it dies and is quickly forgotten. Sci-Fi on networks has a BAD history littered with so many short lived series that were never given any chance at all. Some GREAT: (Firefly!!!!!!!!! Probe... okay I'm the ONLY ONE WHO REMEMBERS THE DAMN SHOW, but it kicked ass!) Some were... Manimal, Phoenix though... all the way down to the WORST EVER: Galactica 1980. (No matter HOW GOOD the new show gets... It will never help this poor step-sibling) and short lived period: Crusade, Space Above and Beyond, Earth 2, etc.
I like this idea, and this style of story. A sweeping world change from multiple points of view. The government, the plucky scientists who are out of the loop, the average joes. But I hate these loveless characters. I just am immediately repulsed by this cast and the characters they have. Many of them are less than one dimensional. The picture of suburban life being that EVERYBODY has a HUGE house and a green card housekeeper is tired. Oh... these characters suck, mostly from the vacuum of space they fail to fill. There's also too many. This has more characters than West Wing, 4400, or Galactica. And we're only in the first episode. A trimmer, leaner plot might have given more life and direction to this thing out of the gate. I hope it lives, I fear it will be soon forgotten, and worse, I won't miss it.
One more show to deal with, should have a couple of weeks ago... Rome. Lost just won an emmy for best drama... since Galactica gets no recognition for how damn good it is (though it just had it's worst episode of the season, not BAD, but it's been a mutherfucking GREAT season!) Here's a show that will probably get all the conventional recognition, and kicks total ass! Gladiator the series. I kid, but it's really good. It has great characters, and epic backdrop and so much sex and violence that, I'm content with each episode. That's what Galactica is missing, nudity and gore. Is Rome worth HBO? If you don't have HBO, definitely hit this when it's on DVD, unless the only togas you can take are repeat viewings of Animal House.
Oh Rome, your FireFox theme blew chunks.
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