Only two episodes remain of the NBC sci-fi series, Surface. At one point, I had heard reports of a second-season renewal, but apparently that's not the case. All the advertising on the program now indicates that "our questions will be answered" in the next two weeks, as the series concludes.
It's a shame to lose Surface at this point, because it's outlived one of its brethren (Threshold), and rivaled Invasion in terms of producing compelling drama. It's true that Surface is more of a crowd-pleasing, epic "rollercoaster ride" than the taut, intimate family drama of Invasion, but there's certainly room for it on the TV schedule. As my wife said after last night's installment, "If Surface had been this good all along, it wouldn't be getting cancelled..."
I tend to agree with her. I'm a big fan of the Spielberg canon, which Surface has cribbed from liberally, borrowing subplots from Close Encounter of the Third Kind, E.T., Jaws and even Jurassic Park. I can overlook this derivative storytelling because - gee whiz -- this is a show about giant sea monsters! As a longtime fan of monster movies and the like, I'm almost hard-wired to love it.
But last night's episode was a legitimate winner, despite my inclination to like the show anyway. What happened? The suspense was ramped up, and the story arc really took a turn. Young Miles became a sort of pied piper to Nimh (after a startling betrayal of his lizardly buddy) and the other critters...leading them out to sea. And Rich got attacked by a strange, genetically-engineered monkey thing, a kind of rabid Cha-Ka from Land of the Lost, that could speak English just like a sweet little girl. The ambush was a creepy, unnerving and bloody scene. But then the kicker came near episode's climax: Laura and Rich found an old film reel from the Dharma Initiative...
No just kidding, they found a film of one scientist's expedition in Tibet in 1957. The film revealed a crater amidst a mountainous landscape (a meteor impact or a crashed spaceship?), the possible origin of the sea beasties' DNA. More dramatically, the film revealed that Lee - the government agent tracking Laura since the beginning - was on that expedition. And that he has not aged a day since 1957. Guess who got an infusion of alien DNA?
I wish some of these plot riddles had been introduced earlier in the series' run, because now everything has to get wrapped up in two 42 minute installments. Great.
But the impending cancellation of Surface makes me realize just how bizarre the TV ratings game has gotten these days. A show like Surface pulls the same ratings (or better) than Sci-Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica, and yet because Galactica airs on the "smaller" brother to NBC it is deemed a blockbuster hit (which is kind of laughable if you actually look at its numbers, and the percentage of the audience watching), while Surface gets axed and deemed a failure. I think the Sci-Fi Channel should pick up Surface for another season. It would be called an instant hit on that network if it retained the audience from NBC. I know reruns of Surface have been running on Sci-Fi, so how about a 12 episode pick-up?
Alas, I don't know if this show has a devoted fan following willing to start a grass-roots campaign for it.
It's a shame to lose Surface at this point, because it's outlived one of its brethren (Threshold), and rivaled Invasion in terms of producing compelling drama. It's true that Surface is more of a crowd-pleasing, epic "rollercoaster ride" than the taut, intimate family drama of Invasion, but there's certainly room for it on the TV schedule. As my wife said after last night's installment, "If Surface had been this good all along, it wouldn't be getting cancelled..."
I tend to agree with her. I'm a big fan of the Spielberg canon, which Surface has cribbed from liberally, borrowing subplots from Close Encounter of the Third Kind, E.T., Jaws and even Jurassic Park. I can overlook this derivative storytelling because - gee whiz -- this is a show about giant sea monsters! As a longtime fan of monster movies and the like, I'm almost hard-wired to love it.
But last night's episode was a legitimate winner, despite my inclination to like the show anyway. What happened? The suspense was ramped up, and the story arc really took a turn. Young Miles became a sort of pied piper to Nimh (after a startling betrayal of his lizardly buddy) and the other critters...leading them out to sea. And Rich got attacked by a strange, genetically-engineered monkey thing, a kind of rabid Cha-Ka from Land of the Lost, that could speak English just like a sweet little girl. The ambush was a creepy, unnerving and bloody scene. But then the kicker came near episode's climax: Laura and Rich found an old film reel from the Dharma Initiative...
No just kidding, they found a film of one scientist's expedition in Tibet in 1957. The film revealed a crater amidst a mountainous landscape (a meteor impact or a crashed spaceship?), the possible origin of the sea beasties' DNA. More dramatically, the film revealed that Lee - the government agent tracking Laura since the beginning - was on that expedition. And that he has not aged a day since 1957. Guess who got an infusion of alien DNA?
I wish some of these plot riddles had been introduced earlier in the series' run, because now everything has to get wrapped up in two 42 minute installments. Great.
But the impending cancellation of Surface makes me realize just how bizarre the TV ratings game has gotten these days. A show like Surface pulls the same ratings (or better) than Sci-Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica, and yet because Galactica airs on the "smaller" brother to NBC it is deemed a blockbuster hit (which is kind of laughable if you actually look at its numbers, and the percentage of the audience watching), while Surface gets axed and deemed a failure. I think the Sci-Fi Channel should pick up Surface for another season. It would be called an instant hit on that network if it retained the audience from NBC. I know reruns of Surface have been running on Sci-Fi, so how about a 12 episode pick-up?
Alas, I don't know if this show has a devoted fan following willing to start a grass-roots campaign for it.
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