Warning: this review is only for sincere students of narrative drama and not for the 12 year olds who think this alleged "reboot" walks on water, even though (especially though) they have never seen the original and, ergo, have virtually nothing to compare it to.
The alert reader may at this point pause to enquire why, if I dislike this series so much, I am still watching? Answer: for the same reason medical researchers study illness, to catalog the symptoms and pass along the information to those who come later, in the hope that something can be learned.
Which I suppose puts me in the same space as one of the more wretched characters in this story, in that we are both trying to save mankind .. from itself.
To continue the themes in my earlier reviews, this series continues to deteriorate although since it started from such a weak level, I would have thought that feat almost impossible to accomplish. I was wrong.
So, for those of you still with me, here is what NOT TO DO should you ever get a chance to write your own script and parade in front of millions of people who don't know better:
1. Never tease the audience with a character you know the producers did not have the budget to hire in the first place. The internet was abuzz with speculation as to just when Hayden Panettiere would appear ... since the ongoing theme of the six prior episodes was that her father was moving heaven and earth, time and space, to find her. This is WHERE'S WALDO on steroids. However, this reviewer found that arc distasteful, suspecting from episode one (which I called the Walmart version of Heroes) that the actress would never show. This disappointment creates massive audience antipathy and disappointment, much of which is subliminal.
2. Another tip: if you are going to go full-tilt BACK TO THE FUTURE and produce a character who can bend time and space, don't return to the past to add backstory to characters that viewers were already fed up with in the future. In other words -- and the brilliant Robert Zemeckis understood this perfectly, and avoided the pitfall -- time travel can enhance the viewer experience only for characters you care about in the first place. In this episode (another negative subliminal or subconscious effect) the viewer is having to endure backstory about characters one would just as soon toss under a bus. This is NOT the way to build a solid viewer relationship.
Given the lower age bracket this show is skewing toward, and the occasionally decent special effects, I expect this horrific show to soldier on, irregardless of critics like myself. But, please, pounding the NOT USEFUL key at the end of this review will not change the fact that this show is a very pale and shadowy imitation of the original.
I say again, go to Amazon and order the DVD set of the original. You will thank me later.
