Oh, Fear Yourself Already
I feel obliged at this point to review each Fear Itself just on the off-chance that one of them is really good. This one was all right except in three points: two in concept and one in execution.
1. When the main characters traded bodies, the swap apparently brought along everything else, including vocabulary, posture, diction, facial tics, and so on. I wanted to see a real change in how they moved and sounded. Didn't see it; not impressed.
2. What kind of godawful Chicago-level corruption does it take to get a prison guard assigned to the cell block holding the man who killed his fiancee? What kind of moron warden lets that happen?
3. Who asks a traumatized little girl "Who hurt you?" when the obvious criminal was shot by cops and is lying dead downstairs? Just give her to her father. If she won't go and starts screaming, fine, then make a few more inquiries. I didn't buy the ending. It was manufactured.
I could also rant about the reaction to Spencer if anyone's curious, but it seems minor and special-interest in light of the whole thing.
I've realized the schtick of the show. The twist at the end is that no one gets a happy ending. Well, that makes it easier. Now I don't have to root for the main character since I know they don't win.
I'm frustrated at this show for having a boring and derivative premise every time, and that the opening credits are about twenty times creepier than the show itself. The acting and production itself has generally been really good. I just wish there was more ingenuity going into the stories. The Verizon "Dead Zone" commercials are more satisfying than this show.
Next week: "Her fiance is a serial killer!" Oh my gosh, I have never seen that before.
(You know what would have been great on this show? First Born, 2007. It's got actual chills, actual stakes, a super ending, production levels doable on TV, and could only have benefited from being halved in length.)
1. When the main characters traded bodies, the swap apparently brought along everything else, including vocabulary, posture, diction, facial tics, and so on. I wanted to see a real change in how they moved and sounded. Didn't see it; not impressed.
2. What kind of godawful Chicago-level corruption does it take to get a prison guard assigned to the cell block holding the man who killed his fiancee? What kind of moron warden lets that happen?
3. Who asks a traumatized little girl "Who hurt you?" when the obvious criminal was shot by cops and is lying dead downstairs? Just give her to her father. If she won't go and starts screaming, fine, then make a few more inquiries. I didn't buy the ending. It was manufactured.
I could also rant about the reaction to Spencer if anyone's curious, but it seems minor and special-interest in light of the whole thing.
I've realized the schtick of the show. The twist at the end is that no one gets a happy ending. Well, that makes it easier. Now I don't have to root for the main character since I know they don't win.
I'm frustrated at this show for having a boring and derivative premise every time, and that the opening credits are about twenty times creepier than the show itself. The acting and production itself has generally been really good. I just wish there was more ingenuity going into the stories. The Verizon "Dead Zone" commercials are more satisfying than this show.
Next week: "Her fiance is a serial killer!" Oh my gosh, I have never seen that before.
(You know what would have been great on this show? First Born, 2007. It's got actual chills, actual stakes, a super ending, production levels doable on TV, and could only have benefited from being halved in length.)