Ultime dal cielo

The German title of Early Edition is "Alone Against The Future" which would imply a science fiction show. I was disappointed when I found out that it wasn't - for about 30 seconds. Then it caught me and never released me again. Every single episode is brilliant, Kyle Chandler portrays Gary beautifully and very believably, the plots are smart, humourous and thrilling. It is fascinating (and often funny) to see how creative Gary is in solving his daily "Save Chickago" tasks. After watching I always have learned a principle, I feel entertained, my faith in the good im man is strengthened and I am eager to watch the next episode. Parents, this is the show You can have Your children watch instead of all this Pokemon crap.

There's something wonderfully unpretentious about this show; I'm not sure what it is exactly, it's one of those intangible things which makes a show memorable and leaves a smile on your face when you realise that in the past hour you've been really entertained.

With a combination of good acting, good writing and strong production it seems that it manages to convey its intentions without preaching, without being `in your face' and without screaming out loud. I always think of it as an `unpretentious little show' and find myself going to great lengths to see it; our dreadful local stations see fit to put it on at 3am on a Sunday morning (God only knows why when vastly inferior shows crowd more reasonable times, I wish we had a station like CBS here in Australia that puts these shows on at reasonable times as happens in the US).

The premise of the show (a man who receives tomorrow's newspaper today and has to do what he can to set things right that appear in the paper) is very easy to get into. This alone makes the show that much more accessible, I think that anyone who takes the time will be more than justly rewarded. I am very glad to see that the show is still running on CBS and I sincerely hope that it is with us for a long time to come. It's been going since 1996 and they don't seem to be running out of ideas which is always a good sign…

All in all one of my top ten in the last decade or so, so good to see a show which doesn't rely on pretentiousness and glitter but on its own values and sheer quality of its writing, production and acting. Not only a must see but a must-return-to as well!

'Early Edition' is another 'Quantum Leap,' although it's slightly different since it doesn't involve time-traveling. Instead, our hero, Gary Hobson, gets the paper one day in advance. By getting tomorrow's news today, he has no more than 24 hours to prevent the bad news from happening.

The series has a lot of charm. I watched this show sporadically throughout its four-year primetime run, but began watching it more often during its last few months on the air.

The addition of Kristy Swanson (the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer) for the show's third season was a perfect one. Her character Erica, a single mother, was a nice match for Gary. To me, Swanson is an underrated talent, and fit into the show very well. It's just too bad that she was out of the picture for the show's fourth (and final) season. I would have liked to see her remain on the show until it was cancelled.

Of course, EE was cancelled in the summer of 2000, after four years. That is generally a good run for a show like this. While the chances for a fifth season are extremely slim (despite the best efforts of its loyal fans), reruns of the series can now be seen on the Fox Family Channel. But if you don't have cable, all is not completely lost: You have a good chance of finding EE reruns (whether daily or weekly) on one of your local stations.

What's there to say about Early Edition besides the fact that it's the best series on this side of the world. It has everything, good actors, more then enough directors and the plot. The plot, a guy (Gary Hobson) get's tommorow's Chicago Sun-Times today, he knows what will happen in the future, a thing that one should be very careful with. His personal mission, to save the world, or atleast the ones he can save in his territory, the great city of Chicago. Every day, he goes out to save the world, sometimes with his blind friend, Melissa, sometimes with Chuck (Fisher Adams), a friend that wants to place bets with the aid of the paper. Shortly told, a plot to adore, a plot that has a lot of room for different subjects. On the background Chicago and a man who's saving the lifes of his fellow-Chicago citizens.

It's just a fantastic series, don't miss it.

Why "Early Edition" never got much attention I'll never know, because it was brilliant. I mean that without exaggeration; if ever a show deserved to be called brilliant, this is it. The concept alone was genius, because it was an attention-grabbing idea that didn't need much explanation... a guy gets a peek into the future each day through the local newspaper, and it's up to him to set things right. The writing was amazing, alternating between comedy and suspense. Some episodes were hilarious, and others were downright scary.

The thing I most admired about the show, I think, was the way it never ran out of ideas. A concept as simple as this one could get stale fast, and to tell the truth the show probably would have gone downhill if it had run longer, but during its four years it was always coming up with new twists and variations on the central idea. What if Gary had to save someone he didn't want to save? What if Gary had jury duty and couldn't leave his hotel to save people? What if Gary's paper was accidentally destroyed? What if Gary's not the only one who gets tomorrow's paper? Each episode had a cool new story that always made it fun to watch.

The three cast members were great, too. Kyle Chandler's Gary is probably the nicest character in TV history, and he had perfect chemistry with his friends Chuck and Marissa (how many shows have a blind black woman as a main character)? Even when Chuck left the show and other characters came and went, the two leads held it up all by themselves. I used to watch this every weekend on CBS, and I still miss it. Ah, good times.

(P.S. I can't believe this isn't on DVD yet. CBS, what is wrong with you!?)