Tokeya
03-27-2003, 09:25 AM
Chanuncey Mabe with the Sun-Sentinel (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/booksmags/sfl-tremors26mar27,0,1844569.story?coll=sfla%2Dfeature s%2Dbooks) has a little something to say about Farscape and Skiffy's new series Tremors.
Tremors worms its way onto TV
By Chauncey Mabe
Entertainment Writer
Posted March 27 2003
The Sci Fi Channel upset a lot of its long-time fans -- especially the female viewers the netlet says it covets so much -- when it canceled the cutting-edge Australian-based space opera Farscape.
But like a new presidential administration, a cabler in transition deserves the right to put its new programs in place. Sci Fi has reached the point at which its execs hope to broaden its general appeal while keeping the boy-geek constituency that's been its most loyal audience.
In that vein, the much-ballyhooed new series Tremors is the equivalent of, oh say, Bill Clinton's proposed health-care reform -- doomed to failure from its (mis)conception.
Based on the 1990 cult horror-comedy of the same title -- one of the best B-movies of recent vintage -- the series makes one or two smart but half-hearted gestures toward adapting the mythology of the film for the small screen.
The action takes place, for example, in a remote desert wilderness where the giant subterranean carnivorous worms are protected by the Endangered Species Act.
Or I should say "worm," as the show seems to be able to keep track of only one of the critters. A few hardy souls are allowed to live in the valley, where they come into weak comic conflict with a blustery bureaucrat while adroitly eluding the hungry nematode.
A monster protected as an endangered species; not bad. Unfortunately, that little tad of wit is pretty much it.
An able cast of cable-quality pros -- grizzled vets and pretty newcomers -- struggles admirably to impart some Buffy-esque zing to dialogue woefully lacking anything of the sort.
The sole holdover from the movies is Michael Gross, whose gunned-up survivalist has been in every Tremors incarnation -- the original and its two diminishing sequels, plus a prequel now in production.
In addition it's nice to see Marcia Strassman, Welcome Back, Kotter's hippie-ish girlfriend, get some work. Here she's a kooky New Ager, not without some sun-dried charm.
Among the other performers, Victor Browne plays a NASCAR driver-turned-tour guide, while Gladise Jimenez is a showgirl-turned-rancher.
The show makes at least a token effort to explain why such handsome people would live in the middle of nowhere.
But these performers just don't have enough to work with. What they do have is a generic Sci Fi channel show, with the mediocre dramatic tropes, stingy production values and thin scripts of most of its predecessors.
If this show, doomed by the lameness woven deep into its DNA, had replaced, say, The Invisible Man, angry fans might be able to understand.
To think that money that could have kept Farscape afloat was squandered on it strains the ability to suspend disbelief.
Chauncey Mabe can be reached at cmabe@sun-sentinel.com
Tremors worms its way onto TV
By Chauncey Mabe
Entertainment Writer
Posted March 27 2003
The Sci Fi Channel upset a lot of its long-time fans -- especially the female viewers the netlet says it covets so much -- when it canceled the cutting-edge Australian-based space opera Farscape.
But like a new presidential administration, a cabler in transition deserves the right to put its new programs in place. Sci Fi has reached the point at which its execs hope to broaden its general appeal while keeping the boy-geek constituency that's been its most loyal audience.
In that vein, the much-ballyhooed new series Tremors is the equivalent of, oh say, Bill Clinton's proposed health-care reform -- doomed to failure from its (mis)conception.
Based on the 1990 cult horror-comedy of the same title -- one of the best B-movies of recent vintage -- the series makes one or two smart but half-hearted gestures toward adapting the mythology of the film for the small screen.
The action takes place, for example, in a remote desert wilderness where the giant subterranean carnivorous worms are protected by the Endangered Species Act.
Or I should say "worm," as the show seems to be able to keep track of only one of the critters. A few hardy souls are allowed to live in the valley, where they come into weak comic conflict with a blustery bureaucrat while adroitly eluding the hungry nematode.
A monster protected as an endangered species; not bad. Unfortunately, that little tad of wit is pretty much it.
An able cast of cable-quality pros -- grizzled vets and pretty newcomers -- struggles admirably to impart some Buffy-esque zing to dialogue woefully lacking anything of the sort.
The sole holdover from the movies is Michael Gross, whose gunned-up survivalist has been in every Tremors incarnation -- the original and its two diminishing sequels, plus a prequel now in production.
In addition it's nice to see Marcia Strassman, Welcome Back, Kotter's hippie-ish girlfriend, get some work. Here she's a kooky New Ager, not without some sun-dried charm.
Among the other performers, Victor Browne plays a NASCAR driver-turned-tour guide, while Gladise Jimenez is a showgirl-turned-rancher.
The show makes at least a token effort to explain why such handsome people would live in the middle of nowhere.
But these performers just don't have enough to work with. What they do have is a generic Sci Fi channel show, with the mediocre dramatic tropes, stingy production values and thin scripts of most of its predecessors.
If this show, doomed by the lameness woven deep into its DNA, had replaced, say, The Invisible Man, angry fans might be able to understand.
To think that money that could have kept Farscape afloat was squandered on it strains the ability to suspend disbelief.
Chauncey Mabe can be reached at cmabe@sun-sentinel.com