I LOVE science fiction short stories. I remember reading The Veldt by Ray Bradbury in eighth grade and being so stunned but feeling so proud when I realized that the parents were eaten by the lions and that was what the kids were imagining all along (ooh, spoiler there. Hopefully that won't make any sense if you haven't read the story yet..) My mom thought it was disturbing, but I thought it was awesome and that Ray Bradbury was a genius (yeah, I guess your kid loving a story in which the kids kill their mom would be a bit disturbing...) And the BEST part was that realization of what was going on.
So, last night, after realizing that Stu Wolff, the fictional rock star in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, is hilarious when drunk but unbelievably sappy when sober, I stayed on ABC long enough to watch the premiere of their new series "Masters of Science Fiction." In other words, I stayed on ABC an hour too long.
The show was either unfathomably deeper than my small brain can handle, or completely pointless. (Spoiler alert) Here's the plot of the first episode, "A Clean Escape": A psychiatrist is trying to help some guy regain his memory. Everyone tells her to stop, he's a waste of their resources and her time. But she just says she needs a little more time. (Oh, if only she'd given up after the first 10 minutes!...) The man can remember the first 41 years of his life as if they were yesterday (er, he actually thinks they WERE yesterday...) but not the next 24 years. Back in his forties, he developed defense systems for the US government. But apparently, after that, he became president and blew up Russia in a preemptive strike (using the weapons he developed, I'm sure). So they blew us up. And then apparently everyone else blew themselves up. So now we've been stuck in nuclear winter for a year, and he can't remember any of it. But - oh look! - here's a video of the blown-up Western White House! And there's his wife! And there are the organs inside her burnt-to-crisp body! And we can see the kids next! No, wait... He's crying... He remembers! HE REMEMBERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The psychiatrist's obsessive quest has been fulfilled! Now we can all live happily... uh... oh no! Psychiatrist has a gun! Mr. Prez begs her not to shoot him. So she takes mercy on him! And shoots herself, we presume. At least, someone dies a bloody death. And now her best friend is trying to make the Prez remember again. Apparently he forgot... So... Show's over... Wasn't that a biting parallel of... something... we would understand...
I mean, my dad pointed out every Bush stab (which there were surprisingly many. Was that in the short story the episode was based on, or did they just write it in so the show would seem edgier?) And I learned that nuclear war = bad. And from a few side comments, I learned that presidents who don't believe in global warming will destroy us all.
And, to tie this all back to my enthralling tale of what I read in 8th grade, this show was lacking that one little thing: realization. The point where you get the point. (Actually, it was missing a lot more than that. More later.) Why was it so important to make the guy feel bad? And WHY did they have to do it again after the psychiatrist died??? One of the guys in charge made it sound like Mr. Prez was a waste of resources, so they should hurry up and kill him. So they wait until she makes him remember what a shit-bag he is. Then they let her best friend make him reremember he's a shit-bag. So what's up with these wasted resources? Was the PSYCHIATRIST a waste of resources? Was that the point? And what about that weird-o first scene where it looks like we see a psychiatrist clone floating there and some guy tells the (presumably) not-clone psychiatrist she has 3 or 4 months to live? (I think that's what happened, but of course you understand a word they say. My dad decided to turn on the closed-captioning so we could follow it.)
And why do the last 871 humans alive have nothing better to do than make the president remember he destroyed the world, only to have him forget again 40 minutes later? Wouldn't they be better off trying to seduce him into repopulating the Earth?
Speaking of repopulating, the psychiatrist says that humanity will survive. Let's hope they have a lot of Viagra in there... Not to mention food. Sure, you could say it's worth wasting food on your mentally-damaged president since he's, you know, the president. But then you torture him into remembering he's president. Do we value his life or not?
One more complaint: the show is about as cheap as you could imagine. There are only about 3 scenes that take place outside the psychiatrist's office. The only futuristic equipment we see (other than those random tanks of floating clones) is a projection panel and a cool little light-up control pad on Crazy Psychiatrist's desk that could possibly just be a light under some frosted glass... But of course it's a super-hi-tech control pad that was quite expensive to make. Of course.
One specific example of cheapness: Crazy Psychiatrist shows Mr. Prez a wide range of big cities after the nuclear holocaust. But except for still-smoking New York & London, we get to watch Mr. Prez's facial expressions!!! You know that's the exciting part...
Actually, it might be. The best part of the show by far was the actors. Crazy Psychiatrist is intense, stony, determined, a bit too intense... Like any good crazy psychiatrist would be. Mr. Prez is nice & lovable but totally determined not to talk about this project at work. And waaay too stubborn to believe he's the president... Sound like how any presidents we know would act? Oh, ABC, you slay me...
The rest of the actors get about 5 lines each. No sense letting minor characters talk...
Oh, and I think Sam Waterson (the actor who plays Mr. Prez) is supposed to be a BIG DEAL, so if you know why, be satisfied in knowing that he does not disappoint. Even his character mostly makes sense. Wish we could say that for the rest of them...
Oh, and the flashbacks and "OMG HOW DARE U NOT REMEMBER ME YOU KILLED MY CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" mini-rants by Crazy Psych made me think she & Mr. Prez were married. And I think that would've added a more-fathomable layer to the story. Just saying...
Oh, and apparently everyone at TV.com liked it, or at least is willing to see more... Curse you, cookie problem that won't let me in!!!!!!!! I need to share this brilliant review...
This review is decent. I don't get why the reviewer still wants to see more, but I guess hope springs eternal.
I'll try posting this on IMDb.
And sorry I'm a whiny bitch ;)
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