Stitchers

College student Kirsten Clark (Emma Ishta) suffers from temporal dysplasia, an inability to sense the passage of time. She is recruited into the highly secret government Stitcher program. It is an experimental machine used to tap into the memories of the recently deceased. Maggie Baptiste is the leader and Cameron Goodkin is the leading scientist. Kirsten's roommate Camille Engelson is revealed to be monitoring her for the program before she was recruited. Kirsten's dead father is revealed to be connected to the Stitcher program.

Emma Ishta is not that good as an actress. That's why her social awkwardness with the temporal dysplasia is so helpful. She actually fits her character. The show suffers after her normalization. The sci-fi premise is ok and the stitching is not the most compelling aspect of the show. I guess a wet Emma injects some sexiness but it's all a little cheap. Allison Scagliotti provides good sass but it's not always maximized. The start is acceptable level of TV sci-fi but the show deteriorates over its three year run.

This show feels different than other TV being produced right now. In some wonderful combination of styling, casting and writing they have managed to create something that feels simultaneously fresh and current and like a TV show from the 1990's. Here's why:

Styling: None of the women look like they have spent a minimum of 3 hours curling their hair, applying fake eyelashes, & glossing themselves up. I didn't realize how much of a problem this has become in today's TV until I re-watched Twin Peaks and was shocked by how supremely un-sexilly Lara Flynn Boyle was styled, and I remembered her being a sex-symbol at the time! This show takes a more realistic middle road: If the scene calls for them to dress up and get sexy the do, but they don't look at all times like they are ready for the runway. Any realism is lost when your female cop character, for example, tries to fit into her male dominated profession by being as girly or sexy as possible and wearing high heals to chase perps. In this show the female characters are like regular people, sexy sometimes, professional other times. The styling of this show is refreshing for the men too. I can't believe they let us get through multiple episodes before we found out if the male leads have abs or not. No shirtless scenes inserted for no reason in the first 15 min of every show! And then when they are shirtless, they don't look like they had just furiously worked out so that every vein and muscle is maximally (sometimes grotesquely) bulged. Yep, TV today is hard on men too. This show feels different. Better.

Casting: People were clearly cast for character and talent rather than just looks (no casting interchangeable pretty people in all the roles). They all feel authentic. The male leads are more geeky than usually cast these days and this makes you want the love stories to work out even more; it's not just mutual prettiness that makes these matches good. This is also reminiscent of 1990's TV. Allison Scagliotti (who was also great on Warehouse 13) is quirky and funny and awesome. You really want to root for the four main young leads.

Writing: It's a good sci-fi / murder-mystery with a long story that keeps you coming back to get more answers while each week's mystery is satisfyingly resolved. The sci-fi and mystery elements feel fairly new, even if the cop-procedural part of the show is familiar. Even so, there is something refreshing in the way that those more common grounds are explored. Here again, with the relationships and character development, it feels a bit like a 1990's show. It's just so ... feminist, for lack of a better word. I can't even put my finger on what's different, but something is. There's something in the way the female leads approach their lives, careers, sex lives and friendships that just seems so grown up. Just look at the way Linus and Camille's relationship was written -it seems very unusual, with the power dynamic switched from what we would normally see, without making it seem like they are making some kind of point. No, it just feels fun and entertaining and light.

I highly recommend this show!

I think this show has tons of potential, although I like it just the way it is now. I mean it has the potential to last several seasons, and I hope it does.

Other reviews have given the basic info on what the show is about - a sci-fi crime show starring a bunch of smart young people, sort of like NCIS meet Dr. No. The producers use a sort of TV shorthand: instead of a long, complicated back story, the Federal agency that "recruits" Kristin is merely described as "you can't guess what it is", or words to that effect. Why waste time on yet another series of flashbacks and explanations? We all know what they're talking about. Some of the other reviewers are bothered by the impossibility and "scientific" inadequacy of the work space where the corpses are kept on hand for the stitching process. Again, so what? We've been watching Star Trek and Dr. No for years without worrying about it - the flashing lights and dim floating bodies are all one needs to get it; this is a science fiction detective show, for heaven's sake.

I really like the way the geeks, including Kristin and her abrasive roommate, Camille, communicate. Along with the boys in the lab, they are unapologetically smarter than most of the rest of the humans in the world, and don't bother with the cutesy salutes to normal people that some shows use to make smart people more accessible. House and Monk are both examples of exceptionally unlikable people who nonetheless obtained a loyal fan following based on how their characters solved problems, and I think the same will happen with this show.

I love the way some of the characters in this show zoom through pretty complicated dialogue with no explanation or apology, and call me crazy, but I thought Kristin's first experience stitching was gripping; the hyper- ventilation was a nice touch, and totally believable.

I say give them a couple of seasons to show their stuff; they certainly got my attention.

The reviews sound like an "I Hate Stitchers" club got together to trash this series. There's precious little sci-fi anymore that isn't some prurient, anything to get the women naked, kind of crap. The characters talk fast, the mental disorder is imaginary (hey, it's fiction people), and some of you don't like it. Don't watch, but to hope it doesn't last longer than the pilot is kind of a crappy attitude - like if you don't like it, no one else should see it. What a load of arrogant, self-serving claptrap. I like the series so far. I enjoy seeing some familiar faces from Eureka and Warehouse 13. I'll watch the series. I like hard SF. There's no sorcery, no swords, no semi-nude barbarian women. Not everybody is a social twelve year old.

I just finished watching the third episode of Stitchers. I read the bad reviews above and don't agree. This show is interesting. Each episode so far has promised something more to be revealed about the plot. The premise, that a group of young scientists working for a secret organization that can probe the minds of the recently deceased, is an interesting one. If only the dead could talk.... I've enjoyed all the episodes so far - fast-paced goal centered, not a lot of drama (too much drama irritates me), some humor and characters that are slowly being revealed and getting to know each other. I like that there is not a lot of "meaningful conversation", but just the banter that normally passes between coworkers. No it's not philosophically deep or scientifically accurate - but it's entertaining.