Article first published as BELIEVE Review on Seat42F.
NBC’s new drama BELIEVE, previewing this week, is the story of a man named Tate (Jack McLaughlin, Crash), who looks a bit like the white, European version of Jesus, assigned to protect a young girl named Bo (Johnny Sequoyah, Unicorns), who acts like Jesus. It’s like the short-lived FOX show Touch, but with more action and less scientific grounding.
NBC’s new drama BELIEVE, previewing this week, is the story of a man named Tate (Jack McLaughlin, Crash), who looks a bit like the white, European version of Jesus, assigned to protect a young girl named Bo (Johnny Sequoyah, Unicorns), who acts like Jesus. It’s like the short-lived FOX show Touch, but with more action and less scientific grounding.
The whole thing starts with a horrific
car crash in which Bo loses her parents, murdered post-wreck by an evil
assassin named Moore (Sienna Guillory, Luther). Before you worry too
much that this will scar Bo for life, we soon learn these are foster
parents who have only had Bo for two weeks, and are the latest in a
string of guardians that haven’t lasted for the girl. Now, she needs a
new protector.
Enter Tate, an inmate sitting on death
row. But Winter (Delroy Lindo, The Chicago Code) is coming, and soon
Tate is busted out of the pokey. The audience is told he’s innocent, and
Winter has complete faith that Tate is the one to look after Bo,
despite Tate’s grumblings to the contrary. Soon, BELIEVE has put
together a buddy cop duo who are separated by gender and age.
Lest you wonder why Winter chose Tate,
it’s a question answered by the end of the pilot, and it does make
sense. This is good, because much of the other things that happen do
not. Why, for instance, is Tate able to sneak into a hospital
undetected, leaping off a gurney in front of many people, and still able
to make his way, unmolested, through the halls? And why is Moore able
to enter that same building at the same time, also able to move more
freely than is believable? Does everyone in this hospital have blinders
on?
Of course, this being an hour-long drama
on NBC, a character study is not enough, so the writers, led by series
co-creator Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity) and producer J.J. Abrams (Star Trek,
Person of Interest), among others, build a whole mythology around the
players. Bo has supernatural powers, which are barely glimpsed in the
pilot. Winter leads a group to protect her, including the jealous
Channing (Jamie Chung, Once Upon a Time), who wants to know why she
can’t be Bo’s guardian. The villains are headed up by Winter’s former
partner, Skouras (Kyle MacLachlan, Portlandia, Desperate Housewives),
although why Winter and Skouras had a falling out and ended up on
opposite sides of the battle is unknown.
It is fine to have a plot structure such
as the one above if it is layered and complex. BELIEVE is not. We know
immediately who to trust and who Bo should run from, and there’s little
original about the relationships or the set up. It’s an interesting
concept taken in too-familiar directions, leeching out any originality
to make a bland product.
To make matters even worse, it’s clear
BELIEVE will have a procedural component, with Bo taking a quick break
from the adventures in the “Pilot” to help a doctor (Rami Malek, The
Pacific) find his confidence and purpose. Isn’t it enough to have a
great story without forcing in a formula that will repeat from week to
week?
It’s these hallmarks of a broadcast
network series that drag BELIEVE down. I fully believe the concept could
succeed on a cable network that rewards freshness. Instead, it is on
one of the Big Four, so the ideas have to be smashed into existing
molds. It’s frustrating to watch many shows per year ruined because of
such constraints, and BELIEVE seems destined to be yet another victim of
the system. Given the minds behind the project, it didn’t have to be
this way.
BELIEVE premieres Monday at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.