Eureka! (You don't smell too good yourself)

[khaosworks]

Just watched the pilot (free) for Eureka off iTunes. Sort of like Northern Exposure meets Eerie, Indiana by way of The X-Files (and can't you just imagine that pitch meeting!).

The pilot was a bit pedestrian, but it looks like it has potential. Anyone seen the rest of it? Worth shelling out the US$1.99 per episode for the rest of the season?

Comments

[lawgeekgurl.livejournal.com]

I really like it. It has cheesy predictability at times, but the characters are really being developed and I think there's an understory that has only been hinted at thus far. Plus, I just like that kind of quirky character-driven tv.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

It gets better - not sure it's good enough to pay for ;)

I certainly like it.

[nightface.livejournal.com]

I've seen the first six eps. Fun, has definite potential. Is it worth spending money on - depends on your alternative uses for $1.99. OMG, studying economics is damaging my brain.

I think I meant to say, why buy when there is tv and it's Net based derivatives?

[nelladarren.livejournal.com]

Right now I'm more excited about it than even about BSG - that's some... :o)

That COULD change once it's October and I'm glad that the seasons overlap but aren't completely parallel - gah, I envy the US, they just have to sit in front of the TV and watch, we have to hunt before we can enjoy...

(Every episode provides at least 2 laugh-out-loud-situations and it's a wicked, self-ironic humour. It's fab.)

[johno.livejournal.com]

I recomend it.

The plots are a bit predictable, however the characters are interesting. They start out seeming to 2 dimentional, but they are gaining some depth.

[tnatj.livejournal.com]

I like it. One of my guilty pleasures. Yes, it is a predictable tour of the standard SF tropes of the last half century; but it does have decent (if sometimes stereotyped) characterization. A fun little series, low-key, without too much pretension.

I particularly like the virtual baseball game, pitting the Protons against the Neutrons at Quantum Field, in one of the episodes. And a pilot quoting Einstein: "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing — so is a lot!" can't be all bad.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

Manny really seems to like it so far. I haven't watched it myself.

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

Sky have so far shown six eps over here, and we're loving. =:o}

Enjoying it!

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

As others have said, not "must see TV" in the way that I found "The West Wing" to be ... but it's on my TiVo equivalent's list of "must record" along with NCIS, Criminal Minds (which I'm starting to get bored with), Veronica Mars and a bunch of UK stuff.

For a town full of geniuses:
a) it's good to have a "dumb" sheriff they have to explain the plot to
b) perhaps they dumb it down a little too much, but at least it's trying to pretend the audience is intelligent!

re: pedestrian

[(Anonymous)]

I watched the first couple episodes and felt that that assessment remained true.

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

The acting in the pilot was a bit wooden. It's gotten better. It's on my TiVo recording list. It does have some degree of predictability, and I'm annoyed at how often their top-secret research lab keeps coming up; but I like it overall.

I keep wondering when Henry will come out as the true overlord and master of Eureka :P OK, OK, he doesn't really need to.

[querldox.livejournal.com]

And now for the dissenting report....admittedly I gave up on it three episodes in, but part of that was having it confirmed by a writer of an ep that the show wouldn't be giving me what I wanted from it.

Namely, I wanted to see a show about a town full of science and engineering geniuses. I wanted Real Genius: The Middle-Aged Years / Next Generation. I wanted a similar to MIT and company where I currently work vibe. And it's just not there. In ep 2, we learn that a certain character had done grad work at MIT...except that in their character and personality, they could've said they'd majored in business/liberal arts at a mid-level state university and it wouldn't have made any difference (except for syncing up better with what we saw from the character).

Only one of the regular characters is a genius; Henry the walking plot device. Whenever they need a bit of datadump to move the plot forward a bit, he puts a different job title on the coveralls and delivers it (yes, I know there was at least one Henry as character centric episode, but the preceding is his role in most of 'em). Meanwhile, the sheriff is solving the problems in a way that's almost anti-intellectual; "Oh, look, the geniuses aren't really that smart. It takes good ol' common sense to figure out what's happening, yep." No, it's not quite that blatently put, but it's the feel I'm getting.

I was told the geniuses have more of the, as my source put it, "Merry Prankster" vibe in later eps, but that the sort of show I wanted wasn't going to happen under Sci-Fi's management. If it'd been pitched/produced as "Cicely, Alaska residents find a mound containing advanced alien technology and are trying to figure it out and use it without letting the rest of the world know", I might have liked it a lot more; quirky types who aren't science/engineering geniuses trying to figure out various gadgets as plot device McGuffins. But it doesn't work for me when the town is supposed to be full of the folk who invented and developed this stuff but seem to have no idea of the implications.

[scs-11.livejournal.com]

I've enjoyed it so far (seen most of the episodes). One does have to turn one's brain of about much of the science, but that's OK - I went in expecting a quirky, character-driven show, and that's what they're delivering.

On the other hand... no, I wouldn't shell out $2/ea for it; but I would break a few laws and bittorrent it.

[gingicat]

teddywolf and I like it a lot; there is character development, though I do want to slap most of the characters at least once per episode. browngirl really hates the new sheriff, and the treatment of female characters.

[terriblebeast.livejournal.com]

Tariq likes it but I found it meh.