Glen here...
When I first started covering ABC’s Strange World a few months back, many readers of this page expressed varying degrees of anger and resentment over the series’ subject matter - calling it alarmist, irresponsible, and minimalist.
To me, the very notion of damning a cautionary tale about where we are medically and scientifically, and where we might be going is...in itself...irresponsible and minimalist. And, to denounce a show one hasn’t even seen, based on a premise you haven’t even seen executed? No comment. As such, I approached the pilot of Strange World with an open mind, but the snarling voices of its nay sayers and detractors were still reverberating in my mind.
How good is Strange World? Well, it’s good enough for TV Guide to find it intriguing, even though they were unable to view a finished edit of the series’ pilot (CLICK HERE to jump to the TVGuide web site for more on this). The series pilot is good enough to intrigue me, even though I thought the pilot script was the weakest of the four Strange World scripts I’ve managed to attain. And as a brief aside, the version of the Stange World pilot reviewed herein *is* the final edit, fully completed episode.
The series’ premise is simple: medical science, genetic engineering, etc. are accelerating at a rate vastly superior to that which gets reported by the mainstream media. In other words, the capacity to do things like clone...grow organs...engineer implants...is all much further along than the public is aware of. And where there’s rapid development, there are two horrifying potentials: potential for abuse of said technologies and industries, and the potential for honest-to-God mistakes to be made, sometimes with devastating results. Take this notion, and insert a team of government agents and scientists assigned to investigate potential abuses of these technologies, and you have Strange World - a chilling new series from Executive Producer Howard Gordon (Beauty and the Beast, The X-Files).
The pilot is deftly directed by Mick Jackson (HBO’s Indictment: The McMartin Trial and L.A. Story). In the pilot, Jackson manages to elevate a decent but unspectacular script by Howard Gordon and Tim Kring, making what might have been an ineffective or mundane opening episode quite compelling and atmospheric. As mentioned above, I’ve read four Strange World episode scripts, and the pilot script was the one I found least intriguing - subsequent episodes felt much more powerful and compelling to me. Jackson managed to overcome my prejudice against the initial script with crisp direction, intriguing blocking (placement of characters in a scene), and movie-quality photography (by Peter Wunstorf) & editing (by Lori Jane Coleman).
The series stars Tim Guinee as Paul Turner. Turner is a government operative who came back from the Persian Gulf with the dreaded "syndrome". While on his death bed, he is resuscitated by a mysterious Japanese woman (played by Vivian Wu), who basically keeps him alive with a "miracle cure" which can not be replicated by anyone but her. The deal she makes with him is pretty straight forward: he does her bidding, she gives him more juice. He screws-up, no juice. Sounds like a married couple to me.
Anyway, without regular injections of this antidote, he gets the shakes, the sweats, a really fucked-up case of acne, and just generally starts falling apart on his way to a gnarly and painful death.
In short, he is her puppet. And the opening episode, Turner is maneuvered into taking his investigative job at USAMRIID (the institute investigating scientific abuses), and thrown into some really weird territory.
How weird?
Well, how can a young boy who is lying dead on the coroners’ table also be alive and well? And what connection does this have to a close friend of Turner’s...also afflicted with the Syndrome...who has gone missing?
Guinee is compassionate and empathetic as Turner. He oughta be - he spends a great deal of time in this episode looking like he’s about to cry. Turner is an everyman...a nice guy...who has been thrown in to some really odd and freaky circumstances because of certain beliefs (the dangers of scientific development) and knowledge (he’s a scientist). Sometimes the weight of the circumstances seem close to overwhelming him and crushing him - but he knows he has to go on. It’s the right thing to do - it’s what he has to do to stay alive.
Guinee’s Turner is something of an acquired taste, at first he seems almost too manipulated - there’s a sense that...as the hero in a dramatic series...he should be a little more proactive. But the more you get to know him, the more you understand and appreciate that true strength isn’t always measured in punching someone out, or being fast with a firearm. And that real heroes aren’t always centerfold perfect.
And then there’s his puppet master: Vivian Wu’s nameless character who saved Turner on his death bed. Wu is, to cite a frequently used adjective employed by my politically incorrect friend Roland, "a honey". She’s striking looking, visually mysterious and compelling, and pretty hot. But whenever she opens her mouth, the universe comes crashing down around her like shattered glass. Speaking as if she’s reading from cue cards...or maybe took a little too much Nyquil the night before the shoot...Wu could put the Tasmanian Devil to sleep with her monotone inflections and dispassionate line readings. Even when she’s supposed to be angry, she seems as if she’s still struggling to wake up.
Despite the significance of her role, Wu’s screen time is kept to a minimum. Probably a good idea until The Powers That Be can get her jump started. She comes perilously close to irreparably damaging the proceedings. Wu is the avatar for many mysteries and story elements in the pilot episode. Without a believable character in the center of the madness, the story finds itself working double-time to create a sense of wonder and awe that she herself should have instilled into the matrix.
Other performances range from good to quite good, with a special tip of the hat to Kristen Lehman as Turner’s girlfriend Sydney - a well-intentioned, all-American girl who is comes to realize that she’s bitten off far more than she can chew by falling in love with Paul Turner.
Lehman is simple, genuine, pretty, and believable. During their on-screen time together, Lehman and Guinee very much iconify the notion of being two normal people...like you and me...who are clinging together while lost in a twisted and dark world which is much bigger and badder than they are. There is a sweet pathos to this, and together they provide the pilot with an emotional warmth and "hope" which is sometimes neglected in the midst of mothers coping with the loss of a child, Turner watching a good friend slowly decay from Gulf War Syndrome, and back-stabbing double-agents.
Which brings me to my two greatest concerns about Strange World: how will people perceive it? How will the network perceive it?
Will fans of shows like The X-Files be able to get past this series’ oblique similarities to the Mulder and Scully hour, and judge Strange World on its own merits? I sincerely hope so. Because, in my opinion, Strange World has something that The X-Files does not: immediate relevance.
SW is about the world in which we are living, and will be living in with our loved ones and children. It is about the same kind of science which may enable us to live twice as long as we can now... comfortably and happily....or destroy an entire city simply because some someone dropped a vial of fluid. Strange World is a tribute to humanity’s ingenuity and intelligence, and a precautionary tale about paying attention to the things that we create - lest they get uppity and disobedient like a neglected child.
Ultimately, SW is a much needed reminder that science is not inherently the issue with which we must concern ourselves. The issue is: humans are imperfect. There’s nothing wrong with admitting that, and gauging how such imperfections could impact the world in which we live. For example: in the real world, there have been a few "false alarms" which could have resulted in the launch of nuclear missiles. Without checks and protocols, we might all be cruddy little pieces of ash, being trampled over by giant Indiglow cock roaches. Strange World is about the same kind of checks and protocols, the same need to watch what we are doing.
This isn’t a show about paranoia or conspiracy, although both factors certainly come into play in the series. SW is a show about responsibility. Was it Ronald Reagan who asked: "If not us, who? If not now, when?" That’s what lies at the heart of Strange World - the need for our species to keep our "heads up" now, before we loose the capacity to raise them forever
And as for ABC, the network airing Strange World? These days, there’s just no telling what ABC’s gonna do. They pulled the plug both unceremoniously and summarily on Fantasy Island, despite a vocal and increasing fan base. Does ABC have the stones to cut Strange World a break...give it a little time to find its place in the scheme of things...before yanking out its life support? Would be nice.
I can’t help but think how many shows have been canned, when they might have "hit’ if someone had just given them a little more time. After all, if Hill Street Blues had been deep sixed when its ratings were low, it would never have evolved past its first season. It would have never won all those Emmys. I guess economics are different now, and attention spans are shorter. And, perhaps, the age of instant gratification is just too difficult to overcome.
For a previously posted breakdown of Strange World...and three other episodes in the series... CLICK HERE..
Good but not great (but with the layering and sensibility to be great in future episodes), uneven - but solid enough to be engaging - Strange World will debut in March on ABC.
