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 Eleventh Hour

(July 7th, 2008. - Editor)          Rufus Sewell (The Illusionist), Marley Shelton and Marc Blucas (The Killing Floor) star in the investigative drama series Eleventh Hour, coming to CBS Thursdasy nights at 10pm staring in September.

          Based on the British miniseries by acclaimed science-fiction writer Stephen Gallagher, the series follows Dr. Jacob Hood (Sewell), a brilliant bio-physicist working for a mysterious government agency to help solve crimes and understand situations of an unusual nature. His jurisdiction is absolute and Hood is dogged in his pursuit of those who would abuse and misuse scientific discoveries and breakthroughs for their own gain. His passion and crusade is to protect the substance of science from those with nefarious motives.  He is called in at the eleventh hour and he represents the last line of defense. In the pilot episode, Hood and his bodyguard (Shelton), of the FBI Executive Protection Detail, are called to a crime scene in Seattle, where local authorities have discovered 19 human fetuses, who all have exactly the same DNA. Hood and his team must discover who is behind the cloning experiments and what they hope to achieve.

          This dark and moody offering has the potential to build an audience that would be comparable to the one who used to tune in to The X-Files. The relationship created in the first episode between Dr. Hood and his beautiful but deadly bodyguard has the potential to provide enough steamy sexual energy to keep things interesting for a while, provided the follow the television rule of not allowing them to act on their impulses. For the first episode, the writers have injected a diversionary romance with their local connection to the case, detective McNeil (Blucas), to draw attention away from the starring couple. The scene also provides the only comic moments in an otherwise moody and serious first episode. These moments are needed to keep this very dry story from losing its audience in the scientific jargon and cold dialogue.

          Executive Producer Jerry Bruckheimer certainly has the instincts and experience to make this series a success, at least to the level of another of his series, Cold Case. But I don't feel that this one has the lasting power of the record-setting CSI series that has spawned two sequels and is now playing in syndication around the world. But in a year where the debut of an original series is a very rare thing, this effort should manage to stay around for at least 11 episodes, or a half season order, even if it fails to draw big audience numbers. If this one is at least a little popular, it should survive the season. 

The very slow pace of the first episode will need to be corrected for the rest of the season. We need more dialogue between the title characters and a lot more involvement from a larger group of regular supporting characters.

          For the record, I didn't like the X-Files. I thought the plots were much too thin and that the acting and dialogue was poorly delivered by actors who mumbled for a living. But somehow, there was a ground-swell of popularity for that series that kept it on the air long after logic would have dictated that it should have come to an end. It is entirely possible that the same audience who made that show an amazing hit will also find this one and do the same. At least I'm hoping that is what happens. Because if the average TV viewer is the one who must embrace this series, it will be gone so quickly no one will even remember the title of this sci-fi series.

 

-- Editor --

 

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