Bye, Eureka!
Aug. 20th, 2012 10:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marinessSorry for the blog silence. I just haven't been in a blogging mood. But I do have various fluffy stuff to chat about, so, in an effort to get myself back into a blogging mood -- Eureka!
I'm late on this one, since the channel formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel doesn't release new episodes of show on either their website or Hulu for four weeks, which if not exactly responsible for Eureka's demise probably didn't help. But anyway.
If you missed Eureka, it was a fairly silly, generally low budget science fiction show featuring a bunch of scientists running around doing crazy science which Inevitably Went Wrong, giving the town Sheriff, a.k.a. almost the only person in town without multiple doctorates and/or scientific genius an opportunity to Save the Day with common sense. This had the added advantage of allowing the audience, generally accused by the show of having about the same intelligence level as the Sheriff (i.e., not much) the opportunity to feel All Good about themselves, particularly as the show continued and the common sense solutions because ever more obvious. But very few people, I think, were watching the show for the "science" (which in any case leapt from "questionable" to "still more questionable" to "er, no" as the show continued) and more for the lighthearted touch, since any attempt to examine this show in depth was going to go nowhere.
Most of the show worked thanks to the comedic timing of Colin Ferguson, who plays the Sheriff, and the excellent decision on behalf of the writers to focus on characters, not science. When the show started floundering a bit and getting overly predictable/formulaic, the writers took a bit of a risk with a time travel bit that reset the show and gave new relationships for the characters to work with. This did mean losing the show's one autistic character, but it also gave the show some new energy and fun for seasons four and five, and allowed at least some of the characters to grow.
Plus, it led to the cartoon episode, which, awesome.
The last season, unfortunately, could be best described as "wobbly," with a plot line that could be more or less summed up as "Holly dies. Holly is brought back to life. Holly dies. Holly is brought back to life. Holly dies. Holly is brought back to life. Jack and Alison have Cute Quick Marriage. Holly might be dead, except she isn't. Holly loses her memories." This was not a very interesting plot line, and atrocious special effects and obvious green screening didn't help. In a related problem, in the final season, the scientists developed something pretty incredible -- the ability to store human consciousness in computer systems and later transfer these minds to cloned bodies run by AI systems, which, wow, on multiple levels involving immortality and ethics -- and absolutely none of this was followed up on, in a real waste of storytelling opportunities. Still, one or two entertaining moments still popped up – especially in the body switching episodes where the actors had the fun of imitating one another, which went well.
I gather that the last season was supposed to be leading up to something – a major change in Eureka – except that something didn't exactly happen since the channel formerly known as Sci-Fi cancelled the show with little to no warning, forcing the showrunners to go back to the channel and beg, beg, beg, for one last episode that could wrap things up and give everyone a happy ending. Alas, although it was certainly a Happy Ending, I can't say that I was entirely happy with the series finale, and not just because I couldn't help thinking, who decides to propose to a significant other in a jail cell? Seriously? I get that the area has romantic references for those two, but for me it more seemed to suggest that they both still thought that marriage was a prison and a trap that neither would ever ever escape from, not helped by the directional choices. Also not helping: the decidedly rushed feeling of the rest of the episode, which to be fair appears to have been the result of a last minute cancellation of the show by the channel formerly known as Sci-Fi, which left the writers scrambling to finish things up in a hurry. Though the various snarky metacomments aimed at Comcast and Sci-Fi did help on that end.
But, quibbles aside, it was a happy ending, and Henry gets to run GD. Yes. A silly ending for a deeply silly show that I must admit I'm kinda going to miss, though, yay, DVDs.
I'm late on this one, since the channel formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel doesn't release new episodes of show on either their website or Hulu for four weeks, which if not exactly responsible for Eureka's demise probably didn't help. But anyway.
If you missed Eureka, it was a fairly silly, generally low budget science fiction show featuring a bunch of scientists running around doing crazy science which Inevitably Went Wrong, giving the town Sheriff, a.k.a. almost the only person in town without multiple doctorates and/or scientific genius an opportunity to Save the Day with common sense. This had the added advantage of allowing the audience, generally accused by the show of having about the same intelligence level as the Sheriff (i.e., not much) the opportunity to feel All Good about themselves, particularly as the show continued and the common sense solutions because ever more obvious. But very few people, I think, were watching the show for the "science" (which in any case leapt from "questionable" to "still more questionable" to "er, no" as the show continued) and more for the lighthearted touch, since any attempt to examine this show in depth was going to go nowhere.
Most of the show worked thanks to the comedic timing of Colin Ferguson, who plays the Sheriff, and the excellent decision on behalf of the writers to focus on characters, not science. When the show started floundering a bit and getting overly predictable/formulaic, the writers took a bit of a risk with a time travel bit that reset the show and gave new relationships for the characters to work with. This did mean losing the show's one autistic character, but it also gave the show some new energy and fun for seasons four and five, and allowed at least some of the characters to grow.
Plus, it led to the cartoon episode, which, awesome.
The last season, unfortunately, could be best described as "wobbly," with a plot line that could be more or less summed up as "Holly dies. Holly is brought back to life. Holly dies. Holly is brought back to life. Holly dies. Holly is brought back to life. Jack and Alison have Cute Quick Marriage. Holly might be dead, except she isn't. Holly loses her memories." This was not a very interesting plot line, and atrocious special effects and obvious green screening didn't help. In a related problem, in the final season, the scientists developed something pretty incredible -- the ability to store human consciousness in computer systems and later transfer these minds to cloned bodies run by AI systems, which, wow, on multiple levels involving immortality and ethics -- and absolutely none of this was followed up on, in a real waste of storytelling opportunities. Still, one or two entertaining moments still popped up – especially in the body switching episodes where the actors had the fun of imitating one another, which went well.
I gather that the last season was supposed to be leading up to something – a major change in Eureka – except that something didn't exactly happen since the channel formerly known as Sci-Fi cancelled the show with little to no warning, forcing the showrunners to go back to the channel and beg, beg, beg, for one last episode that could wrap things up and give everyone a happy ending. Alas, although it was certainly a Happy Ending, I can't say that I was entirely happy with the series finale, and not just because I couldn't help thinking, who decides to propose to a significant other in a jail cell? Seriously? I get that the area has romantic references for those two, but for me it more seemed to suggest that they both still thought that marriage was a prison and a trap that neither would ever ever escape from, not helped by the directional choices. Also not helping: the decidedly rushed feeling of the rest of the episode, which to be fair appears to have been the result of a last minute cancellation of the show by the channel formerly known as Sci-Fi, which left the writers scrambling to finish things up in a hurry. Though the various snarky metacomments aimed at Comcast and Sci-Fi did help on that end.
But, quibbles aside, it was a happy ending, and Henry gets to run GD. Yes. A silly ending for a deeply silly show that I must admit I'm kinda going to miss, though, yay, DVDs.