If you’re looking for a television show with subtlety, Early Edition is not your best bet. To say the show likes to focus on obvious moral dilemmas would be an understatement — between the introductory theme song and the voiceover narration, we are constantly being reminded that “there is no easy answer” to the decision of what to do with tomorrow’s newspaper.
Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t expect too much from a show about a guy whose Chicago Sun-Times comes a day early, giving him the opportunity to right the wrongs and stop the disasters that are going to happen that day. Believe it or not, I really like Early Edition, its inherent cheesiness and sometimes heavy-handed approach aside.
Packaged as family-friendly entertainment (it aired between Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and Walker, Texas Ranger, which I guess both qualify for that title) Early Edition ran for four seasons on CBS from 1996-2000. Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights) stars as Gary Hobson, a guy who is rapidly losing purpose in his life when he starts getting tomorrow’s paper dropped at his front door every morning, accompanied by a mysterious orange tabby cat.
Initially, he’s unsure whether to use the information inside for his own good or for the good of the society, but by the time season two rolls around, Gary is in full-fledged superhero mode, saving children from being run over by cars, stopping muggings, and thwarting murders.
The task makes Gary a bit of a loner, but he has two friends who also know about the paper — Marissa (Shanésia Davis-Williams), who is blind and is usually encouraging Gary, and Chuck (Fisher Stevens), who usually wants to find some way to benefit himself by using the paper. Together, they manage McGinty’s Bar and Grill, which often gets pushed to the side when the newspaper reveals that something bad will happen — and it always does.
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