The premiere episode wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. I didn’t hate it, and I didn’t love it. It just felt like another procedural series with nothing new.
Kristin Kruek is not very believable to me as a detective. Maybe it’s because she looks so young and inexperienced. It's interesting how much in common she has with another New York detective on TV who is trying to solve the murder of her mother. Does the name Kate Beckett ring a bell? Except I believe Stana Katic as a detective.
I wasn’t very drawn to Vincent. He was nice looking, but that isn’t the point. He’s supposed to be a beast. This first episode didn’t really give him much to do in the area of character development. We know that he’s a doctor who lost brothers in the Twin Towers, then enlisted. While he was in Afghanistan he agreed to be involved in some kind of experiment (that resulted in his bouts of “beastliness”), and now he is believed to be dead. That’s about it.
I wanted to see more of Cat’s personal life. Why didn’t we get to meet her father? We just see her hug him at the end. I would like to have seen Cat in a scene that didn’t involve her job or the beast. Who is Catherine Chandler? Why should we care about her?
I thought the dialogue was a bit stilted. There were some lines that were okay, and many that were just plain bad.
I wonder why Vincent would tell Cat the whole story about the experiment even though he says it’s dangerous for her to know, and then not tell her why he was there the night her mother was killed. Seems strange.
I did like Vincent’s roommate, J.T., and Evan, the medical examiner. It’s not good when you like the supporting characters better than the two leads.
Random observation: I love that Cat drove a VW bug at the beginning of the episode. We can add her to the list of VW bug owners: Monroe (Grimm), Emma (Once Upon a Time), and me!
Now, on to comparing it to the original.
I blogged about the new series when I heard about it in January, and one of the things I said was that they needed to choose their Vincent well. Well, the jury’s still out on that. The new Vincent is just a man who, through some botched experiment, becomes a “beast” when he’s angry. He’s kind of like the Hulk. The original Vincent looked like a beast, but female viewers still fell for him from the beginning because of who he was – that was point.
I felt no real chemistry between Cat and Vincent. I don't feel like there was enough character development of Vincent. Yes, he does try to save people (other than Cat), but we’re only told that, we don’t see him do it. Actions speak louder than words in character development. Show – don’t tell. I liked that in the original they didn’t try to explain why Vincent looked the way he did, and it didn’t matter. Why did they think they had to explain why the new Vincent is a beast?
In the original, Cathy is brutally attacked and left for dead, and is found by Vincent. He takes her into the tunnels under Manhattan where he lives. Catherine comes to know Vincent before she ever sees his face. Not only does the attack change her life, but so does meeting Vincent. A bond is developed between the two that shapes both of their lives. She changes her job as a high-profile lawyer, and so to work with the DA’s office where she can help more people.
There just isn’t any kind of bond between beauty and the beast in this new version. In this version, Vincent saves Cat after her mother is shot, and then Cat doesn’t see him again for nine years. Her first encounter with Vincent doesn’t change her life. The death of her mother changes her life. So, there is no bond between the two. It feels like Cat is more interested in him because he was there when her mother died and might help her find out who did it.
The preview for next week’s episode looks interesting, so I’ll probably watch it.
No comments:
Post a Comment