Tonight, SyFy followed the season premiere of Eureka, which was quite fantastic, with its new series pilot Haven, not so fantastic. The story is based on a Stephen King story, The Colorado Kid, and opens up introducing the FBI Agent Audrey Parker (Emily Rose). Her boss, a stern but fatherly figure gives her job-before-life advise and briefs her in her own living room, where she rests between half-unpacked boxes. And this is where the show already begins to display its weaknesses. The characters are somewhat sloppily developed and so is the plot thus far. I don't buy the story-line that opens to slow and illogically. Background info is sprinkled into the not horrible, but sometimes annoyingly mysterious dialogue. A road cracks so deep that one half-expects magna to protrude, but this is not discussed any further by either the agent Parker or the cop who rescues her after said crack causes her to run her car of the street. What we see, doesn't match what we're supposed to believe. The characters are presented curious and workaholic, but then everything done and seen doesn't fit the bill.
While this disconnect is 'somewhat' reminiscent of pie-eating Twin Peaks Special Agent Dale Cooper, it has none of the eeriness, none of the depth, neither visually nor in its writing, nor in the performances thus far (Although the performances aren't bad, they simply are not special in any way that would fit the promo promises of the series). The audience is informed, early and almost on an aside, about the orphaned Audrey, who has no family, who is driven by work... but I am missing a spark, a sternness as we've seen in Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs. Why am I getting the feeling that I'd like to direct and RE-direct this series? Possibly, because I still see potential.
The young woman is sent to Haven, Maine, to find an escaped convict and find him she does. He has been killed just before her arrival. When looking for the murderer she meets the town's inhabitants. We are introduced to a smug smuggler (and yes, I intended to display here the stereotype of the character, done so much better in USA's White Collar), an odd couple of brothers who run the local (and fully digitized!) newspaper, an antiques store owner and her childhood friend/ war veteran, presumably dealing with severe PTSD, and of course, local law enforcement.
The Chief and his son clearly will play a large part in solving the mystery around Agent Parker's connection to the town. For while she is hunting the murderer (or better yet, finding him VERY quickly), a 27 year old unsolved case is brought to her attention. An old photo in the local newspaper shows a young woman, roughly Parker's age one assumes, a boy in hand, that looks just like Audrey does. Instead of presenting any information whatsoever on the unsolved case, however, which could e interesting, we only get what we already knew. There must be more, maybe a genetic connection between this woman and Parker. ... Okay, I've got it, get us to the unravelling part, not mull over the main question... I do have a brain...I want to find out who that woman is, but not hear the question repeated for 20 minutes.
Actually, I wonder if I care.
But then again I am compelled to find some merit...
Already,
I am underwhelmed and admittedly see the shows promise more in the stern boss, [spoiler] who had followed her and spied on her and informed someone in town about her during this first case.
I am underwhelmed by the logic of the story. The main character finding out a person can control [spoiler] the weather and this FBI agent sets the woman up on a date - that's it? No questions asked? But, I am indeed curious to see what other 'curses' will be shown on the series. Will there be a spark of ingenuity along the way?
I am underwhelmed by the agent's personal interactions in the story, because they are illogical for the character as created thus far. But, I do want to see where the father/son and con-man/cop relationships lead, because they are already naturally interesting conflicts that one wants to know the truth about.
But this begs the question, how long do I care to see something good come out of what feels like a rushed, uncontrolled, and truly mediocre program? Recently, my comments have been less positive on what we are given by TV, but I am sorry, it certainly feels as if this summer, new programming is produced because it was expected to be, not imagined.
Crossing my fingers, I guess. I will give it three more episodes to wow me, then I'll just delete the DVR settings.
At least Eureka started its newest season with a bang and wonderful full season mystery possible set-up. That's something.
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