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 The Forgotten

(October 2nd, 2009. - Editor)           Christian Slater, Rupert Penry-Jones, Reiko Aylesworth, Michelle Borth, Bob Stephenson, Anthony Carrigan and Rochelle Aytes star in the one hour investigative drama, The Forgotten.

From executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer comes a crime show in which a team of dedicated amateurs work on cases involving unidentified victims. After the police have given up, this group must first solve the puzzle of the victim's identity in order to then help catch the killer. They work to give the deceased back their names, lest they become The Forgotten.

            The idea of this series sounds so much better than the execution. A group of volunteers follow up on "John & Jane Doe" cases that have gone cold, in an attempt to identify the victim. They do this to bring closure for the families and justice for the victims. I just can't help but wonder what their success rate is going to be in a world where even the police have trouble getting people to talk. There is a scene that hints at this in the pilot episode and that worries me. If the writers are already identifying the problem with their own story, and even they are not able to suspend their disbelief long enough to make it through the first episode of this series, what does that say to the potential audience of this series. The writers Instead created a scene where a citizen just offers up the evidence that cracks the case. You have to go all the way back to the old detective yarns of the 1980's to find cheezy writing like that.

            It is already a concern that star Christian Slater was added to the cast and a second pilot episode produced. Apparently the testing for the first version of the pilot was not as good as expected, forcing producers to scramble to make the last minute change. I think adding Slater was a good choice and I can only wonder what this series would be like without him. Slater has a friendly, everyman charisma that will help to carry him in situations where being a tough guy wouldn't help.

I like that there is a little mystery created around Slater's character in the pilot. At least the writers have not given us every detail of the guy's life in the first episode, but rather they have hinted at his past and left themselves with a few layers of his personality to be revealed in future episodes. Now all they have to do is keep this show on the air long enough to reveal them. That's going to be a challenge in the competitive TV environment that exists today.

This show still needs something. Perhaps another addition to the cast. Someone to bring more action, more passion, more something. It is possible that it will improve with age, if it is given the chance to get older.

 

- Editor

 

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