Editor's Review

Ringer

(July 15th, 2011.)               Sarah Michelle Gellar, Kristoffer Polaha, Ioan Gruffudd, Nestor Carbonell and Tara Summers star in the one hour drama series Ringer, airing Tuesdays at 9pm, this fall on The CW Network.

Gellar stars as a woman who, after witnessing a murder, goes on the run, hiding out by assuming the life of her wealthy identical twin sister, only to learn that her sister’s seemingly idyllic life is just as complicated and dangerous as the one she’s trying to leave behind. Bridget is six months sober and starting to turn her life around when she is the sole witness to a professional hit. Despite the assurances of her FBI protector, Agent Victor Machado (Carbonell), Bridget knows her life is on the line. She flees to New York, telling no one, not even her Narcotics Anonymous sponsor. In New York, Bridget reunites with her estranged twin, Siobhan. Wealthy, pampered and married to the strikingly handsome Andrew Martin (Gruffudd), Siobhan lives what appears to be a fairy tale life. A life where no one knows that Bridget exists. The sisters seem to be mending their frayed relationship, until Siobhan disappears mysteriously, and Bridget makes the split second decision to take on her sister’s identity. She discovers shocking secrets, not only about her sister and her marriage, but also about Siobhan’s best friend, Gemma (Summers), and Gemma’s husband, Henry (Polaha). And when someone tries to kill Bridget in her sister’s penthouse, she realizes she is no safer as Siobhan than she is as herself.  

I understand Sarah Michelle Geller's initial attraction to this script. The chance to play twin sisters who each have a complicated past, and then reverse the roles, is a chance to show off some of her range as an actress. But if she fails to deliver a character that the audience wants to follow, the viewer will not do the work needed to stay with this complicated plot.

The pilot episode moves at a snail's pace, as the details of this drama are revealed little by little. By about the mid point in the opening hour, I was already hoping for something more to happen. This drama is written from a woman's point of view and is intended for a mostly female audience. And I'm not sure if even they will make the investment in this series for such a small pay off.

Once this show moves past the pilot episode, the writers will be forced to constantly remind those new audience members who are just finding this series, about the key plot elements they missed in the first episode. Repeating the major points that often will soon start to annoy the regular audience. But the practice cannot be stopped, as new audience members must be brought up to speed, or the drama fails to makes any sense. That is why a serialized plot, like the one in this drama, is always a harder way to achieve success on the small screen. If each hour stands on its own, a new viewer can join the series at any point and watch rerun episodes out of sequence. If a new viewer must know what happened last week in order to understand this week, they will be less likely to even try and catch up.

The low expectations at The CW Network will keep this show on the air longer than it would survive on any other network. The few people who do invest in this series may be rewarded for that effort. But the majority of people are just going to change the channel.

 

 - Editor