Success always breeds imitators. So it's no surprise that the fall TV season is full of Lost clones, right? I'm not sure what I'm most amused by here… the fact that all of them have gone with a single-word, declamatory title: Surface, Threshold, Invasion, Supernatural or maybe it's the way some of them tried SO hard to distance themselves from the whole "Sci-Fi" label. Maybe it's just that, for all their attempts to ride on Lost's popularity, none of them are really doing anything new or original.
Supernatural seems to be the most fun, so far, and the one I'm most likely to keep watching. It's got that whole painfully-hip "McG does the WB" vibe going for it (you know, too witty for its own good, everyone's WAY too good looking for real life, that sort of thing). With the mixture of "looking for dad/solving the mystery of mom's death" and the monster-of-the-week format, this one's firmly in the X-Files/Night Stalker camp (ironic, since the new Night Stalker premieres this week), but it's entertaining and they have a good time with the subject material. One thing I really like is how they already know what's out there… as they're investigating each week's paranormal event, they have their list of usual suspects and it's a matter of figuring out which one fits the bill.
Then there's Invasion, proudly out there declaiming that it's "the best reviewed new series of the season". Personally, I'm not entirely sure what all the hubbub's about. The first episode was good, but it's so blatantly Invasion of the Body Snatchers that it's going to have to pack some pretty amazing surprises into coming weeks to keep me interested. Cassidy's recycled his scary sheriff character from American Gothic, but it worked then and I'm willing to run with it this time. So far it's kinda spooky, but nothing to write home about.
Invasion was one of the shows working extra hard to distance itself from that whole Sci-Fi thing and I think that may be one of the reasons reviewers love it. (My favorite comment came from the moron from TV Guide, who said that it was different from science fiction, perhaps since "it's intelligent". Cause, you know, the problem with science fiction is it's dumb.) But this one's safe for reviewers to like because you don't actually have any bug-eyed alien monsters stomping down doors and eating people, like those dumb science fiction shows.
So on to the bug eyed aliens eating people. Or at least, something close to that. Threshold also has that Invasion of the Body Snatchers vibe, with 4 dimensional alien spacecraft sending out some kind of audio signal that's "unzipping our DNA". People are mutating and becoming something… other, we just don't know what. But the producer assures us that "this is not a science fiction show". Ok. Four dimensional aliens unzipping our DNA with sound waves to mutate us may be bad science, but it sure as hell sounds like science fiction to me! This one's a bit more fun than Invasion. It doesn't take itself quite as seriously and is less inclined to soap opera. It also ups the geek factor with the very hot Carla Gugino teamed up with nerd hero Brett Spiner and indie hero Peter Dinklage, as a genius mathematician, off to fight the alien menace. The cast is just more interesting than Invasion's generic family types and it makes for a more fun dynamic.
And then there's Surface. Sea monsters, this time, and the invasion's coming from under water instead of outer space. And maybe it's not so much invasion as evolution. They're not coy about their monsters in this one and we've already seen an infant and something significantly more than infant after two episodes. The government's the heavy here with the brilliant young scientist and the stalwart family man trying to find answers that no one wants them to find. The big picture stuff is much less interesting than the sea monsters, who may be doing nothing more than looking for new food supplies. Unfortunately, we may be the food and last week's finale left me wanting to see more about these creatures (and, subsequently, less about the government and its cover-ups).
All in all, not a bad assortment of shows. And there's probably more than one or two I'll keep watching for now. But what all of these Lost clones lack is the originality of Lost. All of them are treading familiar territory, recycling ideas and themes that are old news, albeit well produced and reimagined old news. Lost succeeded so well last year, and will continue this year, because it manages to be unique in its storytelling and mythology. And it keeps you asking, each week, "what the hell?"
Supernatural seems to be the most fun, so far, and the one I'm most likely to keep watching. It's got that whole painfully-hip "McG does the WB" vibe going for it (you know, too witty for its own good, everyone's WAY too good looking for real life, that sort of thing). With the mixture of "looking for dad/solving the mystery of mom's death" and the monster-of-the-week format, this one's firmly in the X-Files/Night Stalker camp (ironic, since the new Night Stalker premieres this week), but it's entertaining and they have a good time with the subject material. One thing I really like is how they already know what's out there… as they're investigating each week's paranormal event, they have their list of usual suspects and it's a matter of figuring out which one fits the bill.
Then there's Invasion, proudly out there declaiming that it's "the best reviewed new series of the season". Personally, I'm not entirely sure what all the hubbub's about. The first episode was good, but it's so blatantly Invasion of the Body Snatchers that it's going to have to pack some pretty amazing surprises into coming weeks to keep me interested. Cassidy's recycled his scary sheriff character from American Gothic, but it worked then and I'm willing to run with it this time. So far it's kinda spooky, but nothing to write home about.
Invasion was one of the shows working extra hard to distance itself from that whole Sci-Fi thing and I think that may be one of the reasons reviewers love it. (My favorite comment came from the moron from TV Guide, who said that it was different from science fiction, perhaps since "it's intelligent". Cause, you know, the problem with science fiction is it's dumb.) But this one's safe for reviewers to like because you don't actually have any bug-eyed alien monsters stomping down doors and eating people, like those dumb science fiction shows.
So on to the bug eyed aliens eating people. Or at least, something close to that. Threshold also has that Invasion of the Body Snatchers vibe, with 4 dimensional alien spacecraft sending out some kind of audio signal that's "unzipping our DNA". People are mutating and becoming something… other, we just don't know what. But the producer assures us that "this is not a science fiction show". Ok. Four dimensional aliens unzipping our DNA with sound waves to mutate us may be bad science, but it sure as hell sounds like science fiction to me! This one's a bit more fun than Invasion. It doesn't take itself quite as seriously and is less inclined to soap opera. It also ups the geek factor with the very hot Carla Gugino teamed up with nerd hero Brett Spiner and indie hero Peter Dinklage, as a genius mathematician, off to fight the alien menace. The cast is just more interesting than Invasion's generic family types and it makes for a more fun dynamic.
And then there's Surface. Sea monsters, this time, and the invasion's coming from under water instead of outer space. And maybe it's not so much invasion as evolution. They're not coy about their monsters in this one and we've already seen an infant and something significantly more than infant after two episodes. The government's the heavy here with the brilliant young scientist and the stalwart family man trying to find answers that no one wants them to find. The big picture stuff is much less interesting than the sea monsters, who may be doing nothing more than looking for new food supplies. Unfortunately, we may be the food and last week's finale left me wanting to see more about these creatures (and, subsequently, less about the government and its cover-ups).
All in all, not a bad assortment of shows. And there's probably more than one or two I'll keep watching for now. But what all of these Lost clones lack is the originality of Lost. All of them are treading familiar territory, recycling ideas and themes that are old news, albeit well produced and reimagined old news. Lost succeeded so well last year, and will continue this year, because it manages to be unique in its storytelling and mythology. And it keeps you asking, each week, "what the hell?"
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