Eleventh Hour premiere

[Temis the Vorta]

Wow, so nobody watched this? And here I suffered through the entire turgid, preachy, sentimental, cliche-ridden, logic-challenged hour just so I could trash it. I guess I was the only one...

The one good thing about it is that it serves as a fine example of why I can't stand CBS shows.

Just cuz two premieres of new shows were up against each other last night, here's the ratings. Life on Mars got the demo, and I have a hunch that's the one that will stick around.

Thursday 10 p.m.
Life on Mars (ABC)
Viewers: 11.60 million (#1), A18-49: 3.8/10 (#2)

Eleventh Hour (CBS)
Viewers: 11.59 million (#2), A18-49: 3.4/ 9 (#3)

 

[Hyperspace05]

I thought it was OK... I'll give it one or two more episodes to see if it improves.

pluses:
- Rufus Sewell and his character.
- 'Gepetto' (not often a show has an older woman as a potential recurring villain)

minuses:
- every other character a walking cliche
- preachyness/sentimentality as noted by Temis

 

[auntiehill]

This one definitely did not wow me.

^ I agree that Rufus Sewell is infinitely watchable. He has a real presence on-screen.

The partner, however, was not the least bit believable in her role. She sounded like she was reading cue-cards throughout the episode.

The whole episode just lacked any feeling of suspense or drama. It just felt very flat, despite all the over-wrought dialogue.

 

[stj]

I missed most of the show! Hood's way of getting the license number of the car and the agent's reaction was an effective way of establishing what he's like and why she's needed. On the other hand, her speech to the cop about Hood was awful. Writing the cop as too thick to overlay the DNA transparencies was mediocre. I'm DVRing ER and Life on Mars, so until I can tell what isn't interesting, Thursdays at ten is a killer.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

'Fringe' seemed different tonight. The scientist was less old and crazy, the blond female agent was more violent and cranky, the science was a lot less retarded, and the show managed to be even more boring. Did they retool the series or something?

 

[AviTrek]

I liked it better when it starred Patrick Stewart and everyone had British accents. This episode was a direct copy of the UK version. I'll have to see how they do once they get past the 4 UK episodes that were made.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

^ I agree that Rufus Sewell is infinitely watchable. He has a real presence on-screen.

I thought he kinda fell flat. Surprising because he's been good in other stuff. But it's not like he had a lot of competition. The tweety-bird "bodyguard" was unconvincing to say the least and the younger guy who showed up every so often failed to register even a blip. Who the heck was he and why was he there?

I thought the casting was really off except for the guy (Jimmy something) who played the religious truck driver who was so freaked out by the fetuses. Now he has screen presence. I've seen him on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and he's going to be some creepy VR character on Virtuality...

'Fringe' seemed different tonight.

I'll give Fringe credit. I dissed the premiere, but it beats Sanctuary which in turn beats Eleventh Hour. The competition for Least Idiotic X-Files Knockoff continues...

 

[Trek4Ever]

OMG this was really awful, it makes Fringe look like early X Files. I knew this show was doomed when the jumpy FBI agent who kept needlessly pulling out her gun for the slightest reason was too preoccupied to notice that evil doctor sneaking up on her with the scissors. Big UGH and too bad I'm a fan of Rufus Sewell. Any way to put his character into Fringe instead of this turkey?

 

[broberfett]

Now there is competition with Bones for what show can be the most anti-Christian. Not only was the Christian guy a criminal, and presented as a moron, but if you show him a statue of Jesus, he'll confess anything. Also Doctors of science can assault a suspect and drag him to odd locations right in front of FBI personnel. I guess the Patriot Act has fucked things up worse than I thought.

Is it okay for a FBI agent to assault a police officer? The crazy blonde lady attacks the easy going cop guy for no reason. Imagine if a CSI like Grissom(CSI) had walked in and she attacked him like that. Then she's running all over waving her gun at civilians. To make her even more unsympathetic, she is just down right mean. A guy walks up and asks to buy her a drink and she threatens to shoot the guy. Dirty Hairy wouldn't have done that, even if it was a dude.

Then there was the whole thing with the Foetal tissue/dead baby issue. He gets all up in the cop's face about it. Basically both characters acted like pricks quite a bit.

 

[stj]

^^^I had forgotten that Eleventh Hour was getting political heat over fetuses and such, from way back when. That means I can't rely on bbs views and will have to wrestle the DVRs again. Last Thursday was a programming disaster.

The difference in audience holdover for Life on Mars and Eleventh Hour has nothing to do with quality as far as the premiere is concerned. Lots of CSI viewers changed channels rather than watch the Eleventh Hour premiere. I suppose partly that the CSI lead in is inflated for the catch Warrick's killer/see Grissom leave special interest. Perhaps Harvey Keitel is more of an attraction than Rufus Sewell?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I knew this show was doomed when the jumpy FBI agent who kept needlessly pulling out her gun for the slightest reason was too preoccupied to notice that evil doctor sneaking up on her with the scissors.

And why was the evil doctor stabbing everyone with scissors? There must be more effective/subtle/less unintentionally hilarious methods that can be employed.

I enjoyed the scene where Rufus Sewell, after giving Jimmy wassiface a big self-righteous lecture about the sanctity of life, finds the ex-husband with a scissors in the jugular and instead of immediately calling 911 like any halfway decent human being would have, decides to interrogate the guy, like getting him talking is a good idea for someone with a scissors in the neck.

Also Doctors of science can assault a suspect and drag him to odd locations right in front of FBI personnel. I guess the Patriot Act has fucked things up worse than I thought.

No kidding. I wanted that guy to punch Sewell out for grabbing him and trying to drag him into a church, instead the guy just goes along?!? I guess he must have been completely rattled. Sewell's character came off as an overbearing bully in that scene. Not a good way to get your character off on the right foot.

Perhaps Harvey Keitel is more of an attraction than Rufus Sewell?

Definitely. Keitel has old school/tough guy cachet. The novelty of seeing an actor like that on TV will attract a fair number of viewers. Sewell has been in good stuff but doesn't have a strong image one way or the other.

 

[broberfett]

I loved Dark City and Rufus wasn't too bad in Tristam and Isolde. It seems like the first part of the episode was meant to show him as an eccentric wacko and his partner to be nearly a psychopathic, disastrous news story on police brutality waiting to happen, and then the second half was supposed to make them seem a little more human. That attempt is completely disarmed by doing shit like not calling the ambulance for the guy with the scissors in his neck and the whole shoving the fetus in the distraut rich man's face.

Why are tv cops always psychos and violate every law there is? My whole life I've seen tv and movie cops torture people, beat up a suspect, break and enter without a warrant, etc, and they are shown as the good guys. Then it seems like the same guys writing the stories are so outraged when a real cop does it. They take that guy's phone and eavesdrop without a warrant. That bugged me.

 

[Aragorn]

If this tanks, does that mean Rufus Sewell will be fast tracked for Dark City 2: Electric Boogaloo?

 

[broberfett]

If this tanks, does that mean Rufus Sewell will be fast tracked for Dark City 2: Electric Boogaloo?

That would be better than Eleventh Hour!

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I watched the original Eleventh Hour prior to this and this doesn't hold a candle to the original. Even though this was really a near verbatim copy of the first episode of the original UK series it just didn't have near the weight and this guy is no Patrick Stewart. The scene with the caretaker in the church did not work near as well. Not surprisingly we don't see the ex-boyfriend hard punch the pregnant girl in her swollen belly here though I was surprised the bodyguard wasn't having sex when she had to answer the panic button in her bathrobe.

One thing in its favor is the short run time, with everything moving faster some of the plot holes aren't so obvious. In the original you wonder why they don't trace the phone calls or get all the recent numbers called (though I guess the relationship with the police was strained, unlike our FBI agent here). Leaving Gepetto's departure a mystery works better too becaue in the original you watch her wave as she gets in a cab(!) and drives away and you're just like "Hello? Call the police. Call the cab company. Do something.".

 

[Worf2DS9]

I actually liked the first episode. Not nearly as much as Life On Mars, but enough that I'll tune in next week. Sewell was good as Hood, and while Marley Shelton's character was a grouch and as emotional as an orthodox Vulcan, the contrast between her and Hood was interesting. Plus, she looked really good too, especially when she put on those glasses...

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The idea of Patrick Stewart playing an overbearing nannyish character like the Eleventh Hour guy is both appropriate and nausea-inducing. I'm sure it would make me put my foot through the TV set. And since I can't afford a new TV set, I will make particularly sure never to watch the original.

 

[broberfett]

The idea of Patrick Stewart playing an overbearing nannyish character like the Eleventh Hour guy is both appropriate and nausea-inducing. I'm sure it would make me put my foot through the TV set. And since I can't afford a new TV set, I will make particularly sure never to watch the original.

Yeah, I don't want to see snooty Picard dragging the guy in front of Jesus all self righteous and Imperious.

 

[diankra]

The idea of Patrick Stewart playing an overbearing nannyish character like the Eleventh Hour guy is both appropriate and nausea-inducing. I'm sure it would make me put my foot through the TV set. And since I can't afford a new TV set, I will make particularly sure never to watch the original.

The original creator of the original, Stephen Gallagher, pretty much walked off it: the original commission - and the way it was publicised - was that it'd only use real science: that's what Gallagher wanted to do, and the producers were coming at it from that 'Oh no, this isn't science fiction, that's silly stuff with spaceships, this drama is about real science' angle.
Then, when plotting an episode about plague (an old plague pit being unwittingly opened by archeaologists who get infected), one of the producers had a brilliant idea for a plot twist.
Gallagher: "Nice idea, but this illness can't do that."
Producer: "Ok, why don't we just invent a disease of our own, then it can behave however's best for the plot?"
And it all went downhill from then, eventually ending with one of the producers saying that starting with real science and developing a plot from that was 'putting the cart before the horse'.

 

[Forbin]

When the doc was getting away, my wife said "Why doesn't she shoot out the tires? Every other cop showm they shoot out the tires."

Totally coincidentally, I watched an old Hawaii 5-0 episode that weekend. At the end, McGarret sees the bad guy's car, draws, and blows out a front tire. The car starts to back up, McGarrett blows out a back tire. The car stops, and the bad guy just sits and looks at McGarret in total amazement. I showed my wife, and she said "They were much smarter in the 60s."