No Need to Hunt for HUNTERS

Article first published as HUNTERS Review on Seat42F.

I just finished watching the pilot of SyFy’s new series, HUNTERS, moments ago, and I’ve already forgotten just about everything about it. It is messy, gratuitously gory, starring characters that I just don’t care about, and with a premise that seems underdeveloped. Harsh, perhaps, but this is a show that could have used a truthful wakeup call before going to air. Let me refresh my memory here and I’ll break down the issues.

Based on the Alien Hunter novels by Whitley Strieber, HUNTERS begins with a dark and mysterious scene brimming with the threat of violence and sexual assault. One would think something like this would entice viewers, and one would be right. But the series almost immediately negates the interest by jumping back in time 72 hours, a tried trope that certainly should not be used in a pilot, and never really gets into what we first saw in any meaningful way. Certainly, the scene itself is not notable in the scheme of things.

The show has to start further back than this to give us a little context about the girl and what’s going on, since her abduction helps create the starting point. Her name is Abby Carroll (Laura Gordon, Saw V), and while she herself doesn’t seem to be much more than a catalyst, her relationship with husband Flynn (Nathan Phillips, The Bridge) is vital to setting up the series.

See, there’s a group of covert agents who are hunting extraterrestrial terrorists, hence the name of the series, HUNTERS. Flynn, an FBI agent, finds out about them while looking for Abby, and of course he’s invited to join, because why not? I don’t think any of that is spoiling because Flynn is the promoted main character, while Abby’s situation is shown in the opening. Yet, the show takes forever to getting round to connecting these dots.

Instead, Flynn slows down to deal with step-daughter Emme’s (Shannon Berry) issues. I could be wrong, but Emme seems completely unnecessary to the plot, especially considering the direction she is going. She feels like filler to stretch out a miniseries into a full-blown show, giving Flynn some small development on the side, but not too much, less he be distracted from his mission. (That is not a complaint about Berry, just the way the writers have developed, or not developed, the character.)

Basically, though, Flynn is just your generic hero, good with a tragic background, trying his best to do right, but with little personality that seems original. Yawn.

HUNTERS also introduces a second lead, Allison Regan (Britne Oldford, Ravenswood), who somehow manages to be even less interesting. Allison is already a part of the alien hunting team when we meet her, and she doesn’t get along all that well with her fellow officers. So of course she’s foisted on the new guy, and they’ll apparently work as a team where others have failed to.

Except, the leads have absolutely no chemistry at all. Most crime procedural pairings are well cast and provide the draw to watch a case-of-the-week show every week, even when the stories become repetitive. HUNTERS is that type of show without the charming main characters, meaning there really isn’t much at all going for it.

HUNTERS tries to be many things, primarily a shadowy world like Fringe or The X-Files, but with enough influence from other programs thrown in, such as the cop genre, to avoid drawing one-to-one comparisons. Yet, it’s like it was created from just making a list of characteristics the producers wanted, but with no effort spent figuring out what would actually make this show work. Sadly, the result is not worth watching.

HUNTERS premieres tonight at 10/9c on SyFy.

Back Across THE BRIDGE

Article first published as THE BRIDGE Review Season 2 on Seat42F.

It’s a little weird to talk about this week’s episode of FX’s THE BRIDGE, entitled “Yankee,” as a season premiere. The major arc of the first year ends a bit early, and Detectives Sonya Cross (Diane Kruger) and Marco Ruiz (Demian Bichir) are already on to a new case hours before the season concludes. Thus, “Yankee” is a continuation of the story already in progress, rather than a fresh batch of subplots.

I like that, though. Life is not so segmented as most television shows seem to portray it, and the approach THE BRIDGE takes, keeping the narrative going without tying up all the threads at once, is more realistic. There are a lot of bad things happening near the U.S. / Mexico border, and Sonya and Marco are likely to investigate several of them, sometimes overlapping, as the show continues.

“Yankee” is a pretty typical hour of THE BRIDGE. Sonya is still having trouble understanding Marco (among other people), though she tries. Daniel Frye (Matthew Lillard) is still struggling with his alcoholism. Adriana’s (Emily Rios) sister is still missing. Hank (Ted Levine) still has sage wisdom to share. Charlotte (Annabeth Gish) is still working to come into her own as a criminal queenpin. There are still many missing girls. And something really brutal and bloody happens that viewers may not quite be expecting, not an uncommon occurrence. Basically, it is consistent in quality, tone, and structure with the other installments that have come before it.

Which is not to say that “Yankee” is without any season premiere hallmarks. While maintaining the ensemble from last year, this fresh episode brings a slew of new faces into the mix, each comfortably slipping in within the established framework. There’s: the chilling Eleanor Nacht (Franka Potente, Copper), who doles out harsh punishment for even the smallest slip up; Gary (Brian Baumgartner, The Office), the skeptical sponsor of Daniel Frye; Jack Dobbs (Nathan Phillips, The Saddle Club), the brother of the man who killed Sonya’s sister; DEA Agent Joe McKenzie (Abraham Benrubi, ER); and Sebastian Cerisola (Bruno Bichir, Demian’s brother), to name a few. Other episodes have introduced a new character or two, but it’s the number of arrivals here that make “Yankee” stand out just a bit.

The best part of THE BRIDGE is the gritty authenticity it uses to portray a certain area of the country. This is a place that many viewers will never have been, and there are quite a few differences in culture and action from elsewhere in the U.S. Heck, there are many variations whenever a character crosses from the United States to Mexico or back, two settings for the price of one. What’s most interesting, though, is the way the people who routinely slip back and forth interact with one another and their environment. It more than a culture clash, it’s a complete melding that is anything but consistent in makeup, leading to some personalities that must be quite versatile to cope.

THE BRIDGE can be a little boring from time to time. It’s not my favorite show on FX, and the pacing will often drag when jumping over to some of the less engaging side stories. This hurts the enjoyment factor, even though the inclusion of all of the different aspects are what fill out the world presented and make it seem so complex and layered.

However, it also has an excellent production and style, and is full of terrific performances. Kruger and Bichir stand out, of course, as the leads, but there is nary a weak link among those that surround them. Studying any one of the roles and how it is handled is sure to impress. In this, THE BRIDGE succeeds quite well.

THE BRIDGE airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on FX.