Cinerant

Low Expectations and Frustrations

Last night saw the premiere of the final one-hour drama from Fox for the fall, "Standoff." The show, about two hostage negotiators who are also sleeping together, suffers from probably the worst buzz of any one-hour on this fall. Expectations were low.

Maybe that's why I was so surprised when I saw it. It didn't suck.

I mean, don't get me wrong, it wasn't great television, but compared to Fox's other pilots, it actually felt like somebody tried to do some interesting writing and wanted to keep surprise us, while never forgetting that sometimes, television needs to be fun.

While I'm still not convinced that I buy Ron Livingston as a hostage negotiator, but his partner, Rosemarie DeWitt was slick and capable. She (along with Gina Torres, playing their boss) was able to hold the piece together and somewhat juggle some very clumsy tonal transitions.

Sure, there were problems with the story. I felt like the show almost careened off a cliff in the first ten minutes when Livingston's character announced to the world that he and his partner were sleeping together. Why someone would feel the need to self-disclose in the middle of a hostage negotiation is beyond me. And in some ways, the show never managed to recover from that, but then it just kind of got dropped. What should have been a big deal wasn't, but served merely as fodder to pad the story until the real hostage negotiation started. And there, at least the writer tried to keep it interesting, by at least having a surprise up his sleeve, unlike "Justice" and "Vanished" which is supposed to be all about surprises up your sleeve.

It might not be something I TIVO (especially since Tuesday night is looking to be a crowded TV night with "Gilmore Girls", "Veronica Mars", "Friday Night Lights", "Smith", and "Nip/Tuck" on, but I might catch it in repeats. Assuming it stays on that long.

And then there's the show that consistently fails to live up to its potential, because it insists on reveling in its own audacity. "Nip/Tuck" really should be the best show on television. It goes where no other show goes, not only in terms of the stories that it tells, but the places that it takes its characters. However, as last night's bloated premiere demonstrates, sometimes the show finds itself too clever by far.

The premiere found Sean and Julia back together, while Christian is in therapy, trying to determine why he is incapable of having an adult relationship. He's offended by his therapist's logical suggestion as to why and instead, tries to take power and "butch" up his life. This is only further enhanced by the surgery of an aging medical corporate raider who "wants a bigger pair of balls." (seriously). It's a great metaphor as on the nose analogies go (and that's what this show does so well), but the episode somehow got muddled and lost. It felt like this was supposed to be a 90 minute episode that could've been 45. The vocal chord lift of a phone sex operator (played by Kathleen Turner) was a good idea that had no thematic relevance to the script and should've just been left out. Likewise, the opening sex montage, while shocking as intended, was overly long, and could've been reduced as well. And then there were things that were shrunk that ended up making no sense--like the reversal in Christian's therapist.

Still, there was a lot to admire about the show. First and foremost, is the continually complex and complicated relationship between Christian and Sean. The fact that the show is now asking Christian to examine the sexual nature of their friendship also speaks volumes about where we are in terms of relationships in 2006. (We can't believe that people can be intimate and not be sexual.) And the impending birth defect of Julia and Sean's son promises to be fascinating, while providing the show with even more dramatic ground to plunder.

So in the meantime, figure out what you don't like about yourself. It might just show up on this show.

posted by cinegod @ 8:45 AM