Thursday , March 28 2024
I watch, I think, I deliver opinions. You read them and comment. Now.

Reaper Supplants Eureka, Legal Languishes

Sigh. Eureka only aired its finale yesterday and I miss it already. Sure, this Akashic field thing (the odd, probably alien technology that is making Kevin normal and smart and then paranormal) is weird, but the show was still a ton of fun. I think that the reason the field never really worked is that it was only ever explained with pseudo-scientific extra-hokey mumbo-jumbo. Then, Kevin's connection to the field just made the whole thing even more weird. It's not quite as weird as the idea that he could be disconnected from the field due to shoving the boy in a teleporter and turning it on, but weird.

Okay, so that's the bad from Eureka, pseudo-scientific extra-hokey mumbo-jumbo. The good is the personal dynamics among the characters. Stark, Carter, Allison, Taggart, Fargo, Henry, and Jo make for a fascinating group. Even when the plot goes too far towards the rogue scientist of the week variety, watching these relationships develop is what keeps me coming back. I would like to see a better over-arching plot next season, something that was actually paid attention too and does not feel completely like an afterthought (like this year's Kevin and the Akashic field did), but the show will be back either way next summer and I'll be tuning in.

Happily, the 9pm hour of primetime television still has Reaper in it, so I won't be too bored until next summer. I like Sam's hesitancy on this whole being the Devil's bounty hunter thing. It was nice to see him still trying to get out of having to wrangle escaped souls last night rather than having him pursue them with glee. I imagine that one day he will come to grips with his new job, but until then, this love-hate thing he has going on with Ray Wise's still genius Devil is fantastic.

Of course, Sam's spending so much time trying to avoid having to do his job means that the story of the job itself is a little weak. There isn't a lot of time to devote to him figuring out what the escaped soul is doing and how Sam has to use the new vessel to capture the soul. Last night this meant that both of those answers just seemed to fall right into Sam's lap with little to no effort. I'd love to see future weeks have Sam actually have to work in order to figure out the bad guy's next move. I know, that will take away from the time Sam can spend trying to avoid the job which I already said I really like. No one ever said I was an easy person to satisfy.

And, you know where I wasn't satisfied last night? No, not Damages — I didn't watch that yet, I'm a little behind — Boston Legal. So very much time was spent on the only trial the show followed yesterday and I find that storyline completely uninteresting. There is no way the defendant, Joseph Washington should have stuck with the newbie lawyer. Yes, he got off, but that doesn't mean his decision was smart, sane, or credible. Next week I'm hoping for a couple more trials, more Denny Crane, more Carl Sack, and maybe less of our new lawyer Katie Loyd.

Am I wrong? Are you in any way interested in her? And, why should we believe that this new young lawyer is going to stick around any longer than the previous new young lawyers did in other seasons? It didn't work before on the show and I don't think it's going to work now. I dare you to disagree with me. I dare you.

About Josh Lasser

Josh has deftly segued from a life of being pre-med to film school to television production to writing about the media in general. And by 'deftly' he means with agonizing second thoughts and the formation of an ulcer.

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