Karen Sisco

After having seen and greatly enjoyed Carla Gugino in various limited parts in relatively minor movies, I was overjoyed to see that she finally got some real recognition and was given her own TV show. And when I saw it, I wasn't disappointed. The show is smart, attractive and funny; clearly aimed at a fairly youthful, intelligent and predominantly male demographic. In short, it's everything a show should be in order to succeed. Only, for some inscrutable reason, it failed. What a great pity. What's wrong with audiences today? In a just world, this show would have rocketed Carla to true stardom.

For me, being a huge Carla Gugino fan, watching this show is pure joy. The writers and/or producers clearly adore Carla as much as I do, and put her squarely in the limelight, both in terms of loving camera angles, story and dialog. For someone of Carla's talents and charms, it's long overdue. At least with these 10 episodes, a devoted fan of Carla Gugino can get his fix, losing himself in a witty and charismatic action show captained by one of the dreamiest actresses currently working. What more can anyone ask?

I knew I had seen something special. After the hour-long episode 5 (Nostalgia) I knew I had not imagined it. Yes, this was a critics' favourite, and yes, they all gave the same reasons and impressions I'd had. There's no coincidence here.

What is it that gets you to not turn the channel? When you see something intriguing already in the opening titles? Les Paul used to say that an audience will never remember the first song you play - they're busy making up their minds whether they like you or not, and they make up their minds in those first two minutes.

So with Karen Sisco. This is well acted, well directed, and above all well written. More and more it's become apparent to me how vital a good teleplay is: without it the directing and acting will fall apart, lacking a foothold.

I imagine this crew has a lot of fun. Yes, there's violence, and I don't like that, but there's a coziness and a sense of adventure too. And the humour - or should I say wit?

Enjoy.

As others have noted in these comments why is it that studio execs keep putting reality show dreck on? I have never watched survivor, the bachelor or any other "reality" show drivel. Since really those shows are for the average person to have their 15 minutes of fame and since most of them are self centered idiots (at least that is what the commercials show them as) why would a rational, thinking person ever watch it. If you want to watch a reality show watch The Soup and you will get the best parts of it anyway. This show was very well put together and if you had watched the Jennifer Lopez/George Clooney vehicle Out of Sight you would have gotten a little bit of background on her character. This could have been an excellent series. This and Ms Gugino's other series Threshold (way, way better than Invasion even though that has William Fichter)I don't get it. Two series that she has been in and both well done and what do the networks do? Please someone slap them for those of us that would like a little bit of thinking behind out entertainment.

What more could I ask for - not only is this show witty, exciting, and well directed, it also has a remarkably hot woman playing the lead role, pushing Enterprise's T'pol off to the side for the finest lady on network TV.

Every episode is really a gem, however two so far have stood out as really kickass (the second episode, the one with the two brothers who like Leonard Skinnard, and the one about the guy who keeps breaking out of prison to get back with his stripper girlfriend). Even though Elmore Leonard did little more for the series than invent the main character, the unique touches that are present in every Leonard book are present here. I pray to God this show makes it, because it beats the hell out of most everything else on TV today.

I've only seen the pilot of Karen Sisco, but I think that it's got real potential. TV shows today seem to be becoming more and more like movies, and while watching this I had trouble remembering that it was actually a TV show. Since TV shows generally have cliff hangers, I found myself eager for more of this great new show. Carla Gugino, Thomas Kretschmann, and Xander Berkeley were exceptionally good, and all I can say is that I can't wait for more! :)