Failing WATER

Article first published as FALLING WATER Review on Seat42F.

Following the critically acclaimed, ratings-challenged Mr. Robot, USA seeks to copy that, um, I guess you could call it success, with the new, trippy FALLING WATER. (That was not a knock on Mr. Robot, which I love, but a musing as to why a network wants to replicate a show that almost no one is watching.) Like Mr. Robot, FALLING WATER is high-concept drama that blurs the lines of reality and attempts to build a mysterious mythology that will spark much debate and predictions. But it is definitely a whole different show in a lot of ways.

As episode one begins, we meet three separate protagonists, each with their own pain. Tess (Lizzie Brochere, Versailles, American Horror Story: Asylum) is a trend-spotter who believes she may have had a child, though most people think she’s crazy. Burton (David Ajala, Black Box, The Dark Knight) is a fixer who has lost the woman he loves (Anna Wood, Reckless). Taka (Will Yun Lee, Hawaii Five-0) is a cop whose mother (Jodi Long, Sullivan & Son) is in a coma.

The connections between this trio are not immediately apparent, but it isn’t long before it’s explained to us. They are having very vivid dreams, or rather, pieces of the same dream, and if their experiences are combined, they could herald a very real danger.

To this end, the cast includes Bill Boerg (Zak Orth, Revolution, Wet Hot American Summer) and Woody Hammond (Kai Lennox, Legit, Beginners). Woody is bad news, jumping between dreams, and definitely seems like he can’t be trusted. Bill may be no less noble, a tech guy clearly wanting to profit based on his dream research, but at least he’s offering to help Tess in exchange for her assistance. So these are our shady peeps who pull the threads together.

Unfortunately, they don’t pull them together all that well. I’m not complaining about either character, or any of the cast; they all do a pretty good job, it seems to me, at least in episode one. Instead, my problem is that the series is boring, confusing, and I have no confidence that it is going anywhere neat. Granted, I’ve only viewed one episode, and plenty of great shows have poor pilots. It would just take a lot to come back from this one.

I give the series credit for not going procedural. I mean, they have a cop as one of the main characters, so I expected them to do so, but the plot seems completely serial instead. But it’s more a lack of cohesiveness and engagement that hurts it. We don’t get to know any of the characters very well before we’re distracted by all the dream stuff. And the dream stuff isn’t obvious, with viewers sometimes left wondering if what they’re seeing is reality or not.

Don’t get me wrong, on paper this sounds like a show I’d be totally into. I dig a cool premise that tells a new tale. Sure, it has similarities to Mr. Robot and Netflix’s Sense8, but FALLING WATER is far from a copy of either. Tess’s career of being the reclusive woman who sees patterns before anyone else makes sense for someone who sees the world a little more than the rest of us, and I can even extend a similar trait to the cop, as even though I’m burnt out on cop shows, it makes sense to use one here.

However, the execution leaves much to be desired, seeming more messy than anything, and not well thought or mapped out. I don’t know where things are going, and because of the haphazard way elements are introduced, I’m not sure the writers do either. More importantly, I don’t care to find out because I’m not drawn to any of the characters, who all seem like they could be bad people. (They could also be good people, it’s just not clear.) Even the title isn’t explained.

That’s just too much confusion for a series that doesn’t seem, on its face, worth the effort. There has to be some hook to bring people back, and there’s not in this one.

FALLING WATER premieres Thursday at 10/9c on USA.

CBS Gets RECKLESS

Article first published as RECKLESS Review on Seat42F.

CBS has a new crime series, which premiered tonight, called RECKLESS. Masquerading as a typical cop or lawyer show, it’s a combination of both, mixed with a heavy dose of soapy drama. There are short-run cases, such as the one in the pilot, but there is also a bigger arc involving a departmental scandal which will likely play out over the course of the summer. Everyone has secrets, and the draw will be in wondering what twist will come next.

RECKLESS is not a high-quality show. You won’t find many of those on the broadcast networks, and certainly not during the summer. But it’s a smart move for CBS to move beyond standard procedurals and try something more salacious, a la ABC, especially during the warm months when many TVs are turned off. I do wonder why the network chose Sundays to air it, though, since that’s the night of the week with the most competition, and while RECKLESS is enjoyable, it’s doubtful it can compete with the likes of True Blood and Falling Skies.

On most shows these days, the police are the good guys. We might find a bad seed or two among the contingent, but rarely is there a widespread issue within the force, unless it’s a really meaty, intense drama, which this show is not. RECKLESS is different in that most of the boys in blue in Charleston are not on the up and up. Whether sleeping with fellow officers or covering up for their buddies that do, there is much to loathe in this unit, and little to admire.

The main thread kicks off when Lee Ann Marcus (Georgina Haig, Fringe) decides to break up with her boyfriend, fellow officer Terry McCandless (Shawn Hatosy, Southland). Terry isn’t happy about this and shares some of Lee Ann’s dirty photos and such, which were sent through departmental communications. Their boss, Holland Knox (Michael Gladis, Mad Men), fires Lee Ann, but only lightly reprimands Terry. Feeling discriminated against, Lee Ann seeks the representation of lawyer Jamie Sawyer (Anna Wood, Deception).

Jamie is the main woman we’re supposed to root for, but she’s not exactly pure. She thinks nothing of bending, or even outright breaking, the rules in order to win her case. She may have noble intentions, or so we’re left to assume, but that doesn’t mean she can’t get in trouble, and perhaps she should. Even when she is framed for a minor crime in this episode, one has to wonder if she’s just serving time for something else she did but didn’t get caught.

There is room for some debate over RECKLESS’s portrayal of women. Lee Ann steps across the line of her own free will, and her punishment is justified. The problem at hand is that the rules are not applied equally across the board. The good ol’ boys of the south stick together and feel above the law. So in a situation where no one has done right, can we blame one party more than the other? Yes, but not completely, making it hard to really care about too many of the players.

Of course, besides all the legal and cop stuff, there’s plenty of room for romance. Jamie smolders whenever she encounters city attorney Roy Rayder (Cam Gigandet, The O.C.), but she also has regular hookups with Preston Cruz (Adam Rodriguez, CSI: Miami), who dons the uniform. Jamie can’t help but shit where she eats, like most TV characters, and so causes much of her own trouble.

If you’re looking for a sexy guilty pleasure show that’s entertaining but doesn’t make you think too hard, RECKLESS should fit that bill fine. That it’s a notch or two better than CBS’s regular season fare, The Good Wife excepted, may surprise and impress, but it still runs behind its cable counterparts.

RECKLESS airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.