An Early Peek At SciFi's Eureka

We don't review a lot of television around here for a few reasons: there's too much of it, it's brutally hard to get things in advance when reviews would actually be useful to people, and - with a handful of obvious exceptions - I just plain don't like very much of what's on the box, particularly on this continent. But when we came across the first promos for SciFi's new comedy Eureka a while back I knew that this might be something worthwhile so when they offered up an advance screener of the pilot episode I jumped all over it.

Good thing, too. A little bit Twin Peaks and a whole lot Men In Black, Eureka is not without its quirks and hiccups along the way but it is smart, engaging, well acted, well written and - most importantly of all - funny. Egads! After years of coasting along on Stargate and the occasional mini series SciFi's quietly gone out and built up a credible slate of quality original shows. Who knew?

Here's the skinny: transplanted Canuck and co-founder of Detroit's branch of Second City, Colin Ferguson stars as Jack Carter, a US Marshal stuck in the tiny, remote town of Eureka when his car breaks down while transporting a prisoner. Carter's a clever enough fellow and it doesn't take him long to realize that, well, something's just a little bit off about the town. Could it be the village child working out calculus equations on a quiet sidewalk? The other child who responds to his flippant "Thanks Einstein" by pointing out that while he's an Oppenheimer the Einstein's do, in fact, live a few streets down? Or maybe, just maybe, it's the RV that miraculously has the back section disappear into thin air while parked at the local gas station. See, Eureka's not quite normal. It is, in fact, an entire town populated by the top research scientists in the good ol' US of A, a place where everyone is a genius and very likely working on something top secret and potentially fatal. And Jack has arrived just on time to witness a major experiment gone horribly awry.

When Carter proves his worth by finding a missing child he is brought cautiously into the town's inner circle, working with Department of Defense Allison Blake to contain the brewing catastrophe. Throw in an oversexed presidential psychiatrist / bed and breakfast owner, a former NASA engineer turned auto mechanic building anti-gravity devices in his spare time, Blake's jealous physicist ex-husband, the former SEAL female deputy, Carter's angrily estranged teenage daughter, and a rogue tachyon accelerator and you have the basic mix.

So what works? Well, just about everything. Make no mistake, this is more Family Channel than HBO, playing things straight up the 'whole family entertainment' street - well, family above the ages of eleven or twelve, anyway - but it knows what it wants to do and executes it very well. Ferguson makes an excellent straight man amidst all the madness, firing off his share of snappy lines along the way, with the key relationship between him and the female stars ringing true and easy. It's a gimmick show, to be sure, but there's no limit at all to the number of gimmicks they can break out provided the writing stays strong and creative, and the basic show format allows for an easy blend of episodic elements for the casual viewer and continuous arc for the serious geek. The effects are quite good but they wisely remain as much in the background as the format allows, keeping the focus squarely on the human relationships.

And what doesn't? As with any pilot there are some character quirks to be ironed out, a process clearly already underway as a quick look at the show's website reveals that at least one major character has since been recast. The tough girl deputy, in particular, feels a bit tired and over familiar already and I can only hope that they push her character into some more interesting territory pronto. Beyond that it's purely a matter of whether they can successfully manouver the transition from Jack as outsider to Jack as entrenched town regular.

Now, for a show to last long term it needs at least one character that really stands out, someone who really pops off the screen. It's usually not the lead, but a support role that can step in, seize control, inject a burst of madness and then move out of the way and let the narrative progress. Eureka's got one of these. Big time. Boys and girls, this show marks the return of Matt Frewer in a part that uses him to his full potential, taking him out of the bit part hell that he's inexplicably been stuck in since his days as Max Headroom. Playing "biological containment specialist" Jim Taggert, Frewer absolutely owns every scene he's in. The man is fantastic, a manic ball of goofy energy popping tranquilizer darts into anything that moves. I remember when this man was literally a pop culture icon, a face that defined a distinct period of time, and his performance here reminds me of why. He's magic on screen and it's been far too long.

So what have we got? A very good pilot episode with flashes of excellence. If they keep up the intelligent, creative writing and manage to keep the focus on the characters in the midst of all the gadgetry Eureka could very well be one to keep an eye on over the long haul.

Eureka hits the air July 18th. Visit the official website here.