New TV Scorecard: Alphas

Well Syfy finally premiered its summer shows this week. We won't discuss those weird pseudo-reality series they have debuting/premiering, but among the actually anticipated series (by this viewer, at any rate) were Eureka, Warehouse 13, Haven (premiering tonight), and new series Alphas.

I have to say, getting David Strathairn to head up one of their series is a major coup for Syfy. So off the bat I had high hopes for this series. The addition of Ryan Cartwright, most recently seen as one of the revolving squinterns on Bones and Laura Mennell, who will be a familiar face to fans of recent genre shows, are definitely nice bonuses. Along with a guest appearance by Callum Keith Rennie, yum. I don't have much to say about the rest of the cast yet, but as a whole the group seems to have a nice chemistry. They feel very much like a team that has an effective and efficient rhythm down despite the dysfunctional family dynamic they have going on.

The basic premise is nothing terribly new, a group of "evolved" humans, each with their own special ability, assembled by a super secret government branch work together to foil bad guys, said bad guys also being super-powered in most cases. We've got the chick who can use mind-control, a young woman capable of enhancing any one of her senses at a given time, a guy that can hulk out when needed, another able to see all electromagnetic frequencies (i.e., see all television/internet/cell phone signals in the air around himself), and another with crazy insane perfect aim. Then there's the goodly doctor who keeps them all in check and doles out the missions.

The pilot introduces the group to us and more or less demonstrates the recruitment process--the guy with ridiculous aim starts out as the puppet of the bad guys but is drafted into the White Hats (well, more like blackmailed, but it works) after he helps them right the wrongs he unwittingly committed. We learn of a group called Red Flag, also made up of Alphas (the people with powers) who are set on destroying the White Hats. That looks to be the big overarching season plotline right there. The episodes themselves look to be aiming toward a super-powered baddie of the week formula, but I could be wrong there.

The show itself didn't really bring anything new or fresh to the table, I'll admit, but it was entertaining enough. It has definite potential. The premise may not be fresh, but the execution was interesting, as were the characters. Not their powers, necessarily, but how they deal with those powers in their everyday lives. We are shown right off the bat that most of them have families at home who are unaware of what they do for a living. I will be curious see how things play out over the first season. As long as they can steer clear of the missteps made by other super-powered humans stories *cough*Heroes*cough* and avoid stealing too much for the comic books then we might have a pretty decent show on our hands.

One thing that makes me think Alphas might be headed in the right direction is the indication that these powers aren't unlimited or without repercussions. The woman who can hyperfocus, for instance, loses access to her other senses while she does so (i.e., she can't hear anything if she is "seeing") and the guy who hulks out can only go for so long before his body starts shutting down. I like that and look forward to how that gets explored as the season progresses.

I also really, really, like the fact that they drive around in a mini-van. It is actually a logical choice for their operation and the low profile they are trying to keep (their office seems to be in a building fronted by a bowling alley). Also, it's funny.

First Impression Rating: 7/10 (With fingers crossed and a hopeful optimism.)

What I'm Not Watching

So the second season of V starts airing tonight.  I have a suspicion that many of the viewers from season one will not be coming back for season two, and I have to say that I am going to be included in that number.

It's not that the show did anything wrong exactly (though I may be harboring some resentment that it got renewed while Flash Forward was axed), I just realized over the weekend that I really just did not care at all about the new season.  I vaguely remember what happened in the season finale, but I honestly have no urge to find out where things go from there.  So Sunday I pulled up my recorded series listing in the DVR and went ahead and just deleted it.  I won't lie, it felt kind of good.

I watch so frakking much television, it is ridiculous.  I can admit that, heck, I can even own that.  But I am getting to the point where I have realized that I am watching some of it, at least, for the wrong reasons.  I kept watching Smallville for at least two seasons after I got completely fed up with everything happening on that show, because I kept telling myself, "I've put in the time, I can't stop watching now.  I have to find out how it ends."  But before season eight started up, I was watching the season seven DVDs and got maybe a disc and a half into the season and then just stalled out.  I started finding excuses of anything to watch other than the next episode of Smallville.  When I realized what I was doing, I pulled the disc out of my DVD player, pulled all seven seasons of the series off my DVD shelf, sold them (for a really decent price too), and went on to never watch the show again.  I have not once felt the least bit cheated that I don't know what happened next, or that I won't get to finally see Clark don that iconic cape.  The show entertained me for a while and then it stopped being appealing to me.  Sometimes it takes something like that happening to remind me that it's just television.  I take it so seriously sometimes that I forget that simple fact.  It's nice to be able to prove to myself I can just walk away and not look back.  Every once in a while, at least.

I don't know if I can say I was watching V for the wrong reasons--I only gave it a try because there were so many actors in it that I have enjoyed in other series.  It was amusing enough, I remember actually liking it despite myself (I never watched, nor had/have any interest in watching, the original series of the same name).  But I didn't like it enough to get even remotely excited about its return, and as crowded as my DVR is these days, that's enough to get off the rotation I think.  Especially with so many shows coming back from hiatus and the new shows that I am getting excited about.

It was my wont, once upon a time, to watch every new genre show that I heard about or every new show that featured an actor I really enjoy watching.  I have found some true gems that way (Human Target, anyone?), but I have also, like with V, ended up watching a show I just wasn't that into for far longer than was necessary.  Maybe it is the fact that my daughter is getting more interactive with each passing day, or maybe it is that "new year, new possibilities" feeling I've got, but I just don't have the time or energy anymore for that kind of watching.  Flick Filosopher mentioned in a post yesterday that she is going to stop watching new series until they have at least one season under their belts and have been renewed for a second one as well.  I applaud her decision, though I don't think I'll be able to follow in her footsteps completely.  I am going to try to be a little bit more reserved, going forward, about which new shows I choose to watch though--as well as about which shows I continue to follow after the first season.  After all, there's so much good television out there that I really do get excited about watching, there's no point in me watching the stuff that bores me.

I have been waffling on whether or not to watch two new genre shows that are about to start, and I think I have finally decided not to bother with them.  The first is Syfy's adaptation of the British show Being Human.  Look, I'll level with you, I probably should be watching this show.  Not out of any obligation or sense of duty, but because everything about the premise just screams that it is something I would absolutely love.  But you know what, I already gave it a shot, back when BBC America started airing the original incarnation.  I watched a few episodes and then just gave up on it because I really didn't care.  It just didn't appeal to me.  I honestly don't know why, either, but there you go.  Nothing I have seen about the American version tells me I will enjoy it any more than the British version, either.  I know that it is (probably) its own show, but I am just not interested.  Despite my firm conviction that any actual scripted genre show that Syfy comes out with needs to have my eyeballs in front of it so that they keep actually making scripted genre shows...I just can't do it.  (I will, however, be watching Alphas when it debuts, because that sounds pretty much awesome-sauce.)  The other show I have been waffling over is The Cape.  I totally adore Summer Glau, and I really want to give this show a try, but I am likewise completely unengaged by anything about it except for the fact that Summer Glau is in it.  So maybe once the first season is on DVD I'll give it a go on Netflix.  But for now, I'll just look forward to the new shows I actually am excited about--Falling Skies (on TNT), Fairly Legal (on USA), and The Outcasts (on BBC America).  There are certainly plenty of them.

So instead of watching V tonight, I'll be over on Syfy watching as many of the final five episodes of Caprica as I can squeeze in before bedtime, basking in the brilliance and regretting that this is all I am going to get of such a wonderful series.

Now that the holiday doldrums are ending, what are you watching?