New TV Thrills & Chills

Now that I’ve seen at least the premieres of the new supernatural/alien/kooky mystery shows, I’m ready to pick a winner!  And the winner is…I’m not sure yet.  After the riveting two-part premiere of Threshold, I was all set to make a declaration.  But I felt that the episode from Friday was weak – relying too much on Carla Gugino’s charms and not enough on her great supporting cast.  I hope they are not always going to be limited to standing around in the lab or the office while she charges around getting herself into trouble.  Peter Dinklage is such a terrific actor!  If you haven’t seen The Station Agent, you must.  And the dialogue is frequently weak, especially Carla’s – lines like, “What’s risk management without a little risk?” and “Whatever that guy’s on makes PCP look like baby aspirin” are definitely not propelling the show to a higher level of quality.  She even looked a little embarrassed after she delivered that last one.

I’m also not 100% convinced about Invasion either – it’s definitely got a good cast, high marks for setting up an intriguing situation, and an excellent sense of place.  The Florida Everglades has an inherent creepy quality about it, and post-hurricane, it seems even more desolate and its inhabitants more vulnerable.  I’m staying open to the possibilities, but it ain’t no Lost.

And that’s probably the problem with all these new dramas – they are trying too hard to be either Lost, The X-Files, or a combination of both.  Supernatural went ahead and directly referenced X-Files in the first episode, and clearly is striving for that mix of an overarching mystery combined with monsters-of-the-week.  Right now, I’d say the only thing making the show worthwhile is Jensen Ackles, who positively crackles with charisma.  He’s a TV star.

Jury’s out on Surface, too – I thought the premiere was pretty interesting, but I’m afraid the monster(s), whatever they are, looked a little silly.  Don’t show too much until the third act – didn’t you people see Jaws?  But I’m interested enough to keep watching for a while – I don’t want to fall in love too much with any of these shows in case they get cancelled.