Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Early Verdicts: Vanished


One liner: Fox drama about a Senator’s wife gone missing.

Beyond the spin: Wants to be 24 combined to Without a Trace, throwing in the mystery and conspiracies of Lost and Alias.

Truth be told: Doesn’t have the drive of 24, or the human interest of Without a Trace, or the heart of Lost, or the costumes-you-can-kick-butt-in of Alias.

The skinny: Three episodes in, and it already feels like they are making up stuff just to create mystery. The conspiracy plot points seem contrived and counter-productive to the powers behind the curtain.

Remember in the first season of 24, when you found out that they only had the first 12 eps fully mapped out, so the actions of the villains didn’t make sense if you compared the last half of the season to the first? Now imaging 24 doing that in the second episode…

Why you really don’t want to watch: Despite some fun and a little bit of interest (Ming Na as a FBI agent – works for me), it tries too hard with too little. Plus, the lead hunk (Agent Kelton) has yet to find an ounce of charisma in the role, and the show has two of 24’s Kims – the senator’s children whose sole function is to do stupid things that get them in trouble to spike the intensity, without ever doing one thing that makes you care if they got their foot stuck in a wolf trap.

I’ve moved on.

How about you?

Just my thoughts,

Sean

ps For an idea of how exciting Fox thinks the show is, the above picture is the most action filled one on their website.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was confused by the picture. Did the chair plead guilty or innocent?

DAN BUCK said...

Yes. I was turned off by the previews to this one. As soon as the mentioned the "Ancient conspiracy" I was thinking, these people are pimping, Without a Trace and the Divinci Code!

I don't buy it.

I also have a thing for Rebecca Gayheart, but she doesn't save the show for me.