Hate the Game, Not THE PLAYER (But You Can Hate The Player, Too)

Article first published as THE PLAYER Review on Seat42F.

ENDGAME -- "Pilot" -- Pictured: (l-r) Philip Winchester as Alex King, Wesley Snipes as Johnson -- (Photo by: Gregory Peters/NBC)

NBC’s THE PLAYER is about a man caught in a gambling ring. A secretive group has developed a technology to predict crimes, and the rich and powerful bid on whether the crime can be stopped or not. Our hero is recruited to play the good guy in the game, and if they can justify to him morally why he should participate, he may just have a new career. In this case, twisting convention, viewers will be likely to hate the game, not the player.

Based on that description, THE PLAYER isn’t quite like any other series on television, but it has a lot of similarities to other programs. Like Person of Interest or Minority Report, it deals with future crime. And like a whole lot of other series, it is a crime procedural, with a different case being presented each week for the cast to work to stop. So while it does have a couple of things to set it apart, at its core, THE PLAYER isn’t much different from other fare.

The cast is led by Philip Winchester (Strike Back), whose Alex Kane is the archetype of a hero. He is intelligent, strong, fearless, and dedicated to saving lives. Why would somebody like that participate in a game like this? A tragedy early in the pilot rocks Alex, and while it takes the full first hour to get there, he comes to see he can do good, even if he doesn’t quite agree with what is happening. Thankfully, he has his friend, Detective Cal Brown (Damon Gupton, Empire) to try to keep him grounded.

Make no mistake, the game in THE PLAYER is sick. If a person can figure out when crimes are going to occur, they could mobilize authorities to stop them. Instead, the game master, Mr. Johnson (Wesley Snipes, Blade, The Expendables 3), makes it into entertainment and serves the wealthy, not the victims. Mr. Johnson is profiting off of the misery of others, whether the crime is stopped or not. There is little noble about him.

While I root for Alex and jeer Mr. Johnson, there is another main character in the middle that I can’t decide if I should like or not. Cassandra King (Charity Wakefield, Wolf Hall) works for Mr. Johnson, but serves in a capacity to assist Alex. She certainly seems like a nice lady with a good heart, but looking at her career choice, it’s hard to reconcile that with what she does.

That epitomizes the biggest problem that THE PLAYER has going for it. The premise requires a few contortions to try to make sense of it. Character motivation is dubious. Shows that live in the gray areas of morality are often complex and prompt one to think; this one does not, merely asking you to accept the duality of the situation, and then enjoy the fast-paced, violent style. It’s basically an action movie as a weekly series, with the same limitations that genre usually provides.

THE PLAYER isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. While certainly not high-quality, it is entertaining. However, it will get old real quick, and without completely believable characters, it will become more and more difficult to sustain that entertainment over any significant period of time. I feel like this works best as a flash-in-the-pan. For six episodes, I could really get into THE PLAYER. As a twenty-two installments-per-year series, it has very little chance of succeeding, and doesn’t seem worth the effort to stick around and find out if it does, the prize being too minor to cherish.

It has little hope of capturing the viewers used to seeing Parenthood in this time slot, appealing to a completely different group, but since Parenthood wasn’t that high-rated, that’s probably on purpose.

THE PLAYER premieres Thursday, September 24^th at 10 p.m. on NBC.

Alice discovers new wonder(land)

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."  ~ Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

     SyFy has done for Wonderland what it did in 2007 for Oz.  This past Sunday and Monday, Alice aired.  It was clever, witty, and wholly original.  With heavy references to both Alice novels by Lewis Carroll, it also took place in a universe where the events of the books had happened over one hundred and forty years ago.  Presumably the heroine in this adventure is also coincidentally named Alice, and the denizens of the strange country don't age very much.  This new four hour miniseries was set present day in the human world, but appeared a cross between future and fantasy in Wonderland.  It was just as trippy as the book, especially the scenes with Drs. Dee and Dum (Eugene Lipinski).  In this version, the cards also inhabit a casino (apropos, no?) where the Carpenter (Timothy Webber, Men in Trees, why doesn't this man have his own Wikipedia entry?) harvests their emotions.  But he has a very surprisingly secret, revealed around the third hour.

     The cast is led by the beautiful Caterina Scorsone, playing Alice with Kung Fu action.  This Alice has fallen in love with Jack (Philip Winchester), who is mysteriously kidnapped by 'suits' from the White Rabbit company.  On a side note, Winchester did a brilliant job, having wonderful chemistry with Scorsone in the beginning, and none at all when they meet again on the other side, important to the story arc.  Predictably, Alice follows the kidnappers and falls through a mirror.  Alice begins her search for Jack, soon assisted by Hatter (Andrew Lee Potts), owner of a teashop, playing every angle.  Jack introduces her to the resistance, who wants to overthrow the wicked Queen of Hearts (Kathy Bates).  The group is led by Dodo (Tim Curry in a scene stealing, but very short, performance).  Unfortunately, Hatter is loyal to neither the resistance or the royalty, which causes no end of trouble and confusion for Alice, but also sets them up for a nice romance.

     The special effects are magical, and the Wonderland realm does seem otherworldly, helped along by a fantastic cast of supporting characters.  Besides the actors mentioned above, Matt Frewer as a Monty Python-inspired White Knight stands out, as does Colm Meaney (Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space 9) as the King of Hearts, Geoff Redknap as assassin March Hare, and Harry Dean Stanton as Caterpillar.

     If you are looking for a new adaptation of the classic story, wait for Tim Burton's movie next year.  If you want something wholly new, clever, unexpectedly twisty, and just plain fun, check out Alice, which will next re-air this Sunday at 5pm in its entirety.

"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none--
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.