[TV] Eleventh Hour - USA Version

[Tenshin_Xo]

Part of the trio of new releases on Thursday nights, running at 9pm Eleventh Hour is another science/science fiction based mystery thriller.  I'll write up my personal review tonight, but in the mean time here is the Newsday review.

 

REASON TO WATCH Along with Fox's "Fringe," this is the other major money magnet of the '08 season - a new Jerry Bruckheimer series based on a British hit of the same name that inspired rich bids from both ABC and CBS.

 

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Dr. Jacob Hood (Rufus Sewell, most recently in "John Adams") is a super-duper smart scientist who's called in at the 11th hour when everyone else at the FBI throws up their collective hands in the middle of a tough case. His partner, Rachel Young (Marley Shelton, "Grindhouse/

 

Planet Terror") is a member of the bureau's executive protection detail, but the way she explains the gig, "He spends a lot of time in his head, so I have to watch his back." Tonight brings the duo to a Georgia town overwhelmed by the deaths of three 11-year-old boys.

 

BOTTOM LINE Only a knucklehead would bet against a Bruckheimer series on CBS, and not wishing to appear too dense, I will safely and wimpily state that "Eleventh Hour" bears close watching. Tonight's premiere may seem like ridiculous twaddle, and it may feel like a major downer (and kinda sloooow), too, but maybe that's just Bruckheimer playing with our heads. In fact, "Hour" deserves a second look (next week is definitely better) if only because it's impossible to imagine that a Bruckheimer show in the post-"CSI" slot might falter. "Hour" may well be with us for a long time to come.

 

GRADE C (for the pilot)

 

GRADE B (for next week)

 

A quick prediction though, is that Fringe will have overall better ratings, Fox will cancel it, and Eleventh Hour will pick it's watchers to go on to a successful run. [/cynicism]

[Emperor]

I couldn't tape it cause I was taping other things at that time... but I plan to catch it on demand.

[Tenshin_Xo]

I'm not impressed.  Its less entertaining than Fringe, the scientist is flat and more boring than quirky, the agent handler is too bull doggish.  Overall the performances were OK but the characters were flat.  Unfortunately still thats not my biggest complaint.

 

This is a show which appears to conservatively push the boundaries of science into sci-fi.  That's nothing too bad there, as long as you do it well.  This show doesn't.  This show is one that seems to purport science as something other than what it is.  No longer is science the investigation of the natural world to increase our religion; instead this is Science as religion, a method of belief.  It's something to put your faith and rational thought into. 

 

The only cohesive presentation of actual fact that I caught was a grape seed exchange to explain cloning.  It seemed like anything else that came up was just "It's Science" with no real meat to the explanation. 

 

In a word, I'd describe this show as "flat".  Its a show I'll leave in the DVR and might watch when there's nothing else worth watching, but I'm not invested in this one at all.

[Liathiana]

I have to agree, it was rather slow too. Hopefully it gets better.

 

And what is with nearly all the female fbi agents on tv being blonde?