The autumnal equinox is still a month off, and we’re still 10 days away from Labor Day weekend, but if Fall didn’t kick-off last night, we got a pretty good slam bang preview. (Whatever that means. I just came from a screening of How to Eat Fried Worms, and I’m killing time before Beerfest. Obviously, my judgment today is heavily impaired.) I refer, of course, to last night’s two hour thrill-fest on Fox: the season premiere of Prison Break and the series premiere of Vanished, two shows which many will argue are progeny of Fox’s hit 24. If you’re talking about television that makes you push the boundaries of one’s abilities to completely suspend disbelief, than yes, they are Kiefer’s spawn, although in reality, since every great idea fails the first time out only to become successful once it gets schlocky, the granddaddy of them all would have to be the late, great, too-short-lived, Steven Bochco produced, legal thriller Murder One. But I digress. Yeah, I have a knack for it.
I’ve had a love-hate relationship with 24 during each of its seasons because of some of the shit they pull in the storylines. I mean, I don’t need the show to be realistic, but I do need it to at least be believable within the world created, and every now and then, I can’t help but roll my eyes and follow them as they actually roll out of my head, across the room, bounce off the TV screen and fly back into their sockets. (Hey, it’s as realistic as 75% of what Jack Bauer accomplishes.) BUT — and this is a big but — I still for the most part love the show and have watched it religiously since the very first day.
When Prison Break arrived last year, the first couple episodes made 24 look like it was on its way to becoming the first TV series to win a Novel Prize for literature. Compared to Prison Break, 24 made me want to say, “Big deal. I can see that happening.” That doesn’t mean I liked the tale of Michael Scofield, Lincoln Burrows et al more than the team at CTU; it just means the show was that much more absurd. However, it was also absurdly fun, and as every utterly ridiculous plot twist appeared, it was hard to not want to see what was coming next.
For me, what came next was the Tribeca Film Festival, and until Time Warner starts offering me a 100 hour-plus DiVo instead of the dinky 35 (or whatever) they give now, I’m going to be in trouble, regularly losing shows as other new things bump them off. That’s what happened to me as I lost the last several episodes of Prison Break at the end of last season. But thanks to Netflix, I was able to catch-up about a week ago, preparing myself for last night’s fun.
And fun it was. If you didn’t like the show last year, nothing’s going to change your mind now. And having broken out of prison, now (at least for this season) the series seems to have become a new version of The Fugitive, just in the plural. The best addition to the show this year is definitely the phenomenal William Fiichtner, who is often one of the best things in anything he’s in. (That was sure as hell true with last year’s maybe unfairly cancelled Invasion.) Fichtner plays the FBI agent on the escapees tail, and he’s obviously the first person presented on the show who can actually match wits with Scofield.
Really, for most of the hour, not a ton happened last night. As the series needs to fundamentally change, last night’s episode was kind of like a new pilot episode (again, following the lead of 24 which has to recreate itself at least a little bit every year; or the even more impressive HBO series The Wire — which returns in a couple weeks and is definitely one of, if not the best series at creating season-long, complex story arcs that can really stand on their own), introducing new characters and completely new situation while also making dramatic changes to the group of people we came to know and love … or not. I won’t give away the really major (and great) event that happens at the end of the episode for those of you who DiVo’d the episode or will download it from iTunes. The only other thing I will mention is the notable full-body-transformation that has occurred with the Terrence Steadman character, played briefly last year by John Billingsley who had to leave the show because he got a regular role in the new ABC series The Nine. I think we’re better for it. No offense to Billingsley, but Jeff Perry, the new Steadman, has always been one of my favorite character actors, always bringing a sense of mystery in danger to his work no matter how good or evil the role may be.
Enough with Prison Break — the show is a fun thrill-ride regardless of how ridiculous it may be. While I rarely judge any series on its first episode alone (unless it is literally unwatchable), I don’t know if I hold out much hope for Vanished. (If you missed it and are curious, Fox will allow you to watch the whole episode for freewith no commercials from their website.) The series will get my requisite 3-4 viewings to see where it’s going to go. This entire episode was no different than the vast majority of pilots that do little more than set-up the situation, briefly introduce the characters and try to create a mood. The problem with Vanished is hat it seems to be trying too hard already. It so desperately wants to be the next 24 or Prison Break, right down to the way it alters the shot or creates it’s own kind of, for lack of a better term, commercial bumper. (24 has the ticking clock; Prison Break a madcap rush through the prison’s tunnels last season and emsingly speeding through roads, fields and towns this.) The Rebecca Gayheart journalist character is likely to become annoying really quickly if they don’t give her more to do than simply be your stereotypical ruthless upwardly mobile reporter. (USA’s The Dead Zone had the same type of character for a while; first they made her less ruthless; then they wrote her out of the show. I wouldn’t be that surprised to see something similar when the writers realize they have nothing interesting to do with her.)
Right now, Vanished is filled with stereotype and cliche. Of course the Senator’s missing wife has a mysterious history. Of course the daughter’s boyfriend is involved, even if it’s mostly unknowingly. Of course the son is talking to his mother. Of course the superstar agent has tragedy in his past. And of course, it wasn’t really his fault. Fine. I’ll give Vanished it’s completely unoriginal set-up and flash and dash and quick-cut shock-and-awe — all we really get from director Mimi Leder in this episode. In fact, the one element drilled into the viewing audience more than any actual plot point is that FBI and police yell “Clear” a lot when entering a potentially dangerous place. But just like the hunt for the Senator’s wife and every episode of 24, the writers better hurry up and make something original and interesting happen — even if it’s laughable — because the clock is ticking.
Out of Focus 