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I'm depressed. We're closing in on the fourth season mid-point of Eureka. I thought the time travel gimmick this season to change up the status quo was totally freaking AWESOME, and now we're going to revisit the whole shebang! I just don't have that much hair left to lose!
With no new episode this week (Labor Day weekend), I want to know what other people think about this season's primary plot conceit. What makes this show so appealing? What's your favorite aspect of Eureka?
I've already stated that I thought the time-travel schtick was clever, especially once it looked to be permanent. We got familiar characters in a whole new world where anything was possible. It introduced new levels of dramatic tension to the world, and set us up for some awesome character arc payoffs at the end of the season. It gave us a long-form story arc that can actually resolve in several very satisfactory ways - as opposed to traditional tropes of "hero defeats the villain of the year" or "long-running mystery is resolved and villain is revealed".
The central appeal of Eureka for me lies in the fact that the characters are all functioning, mature, responsible adults. The show exists wholly apart from the kind of soap-opera emotional drama and self-obsessed, sexually central emoting that not only predominates prime-time television but has worked its way into most of popular entertainment. Not to say that "Eureka" is without drama, emotion, or sex. I like these characters, and I want them to find love and be happy with each other. But life gets in their way. Just life, nothing contrived or bizarre. But since this is Eureka, life here has a touch of the fantastic, a touch of wonder.
Aside from the super-science, this is recognizably my life. My kids are growing up. My friends are dealing with issues at work which I don't understand and the particulars of to which I can barely relate. My wife alternates between my best friend who reads my thoughts, and some strange pod person. My own occupation occasionally takes over everything, and my friends and family stare at me blankly while I try to explain the difference between kerning in Times New Roman and Georgia. I want my children to succeed in their activities, doing my best to get them to practice on time and help with projects - usually to their frustration. The characters in Eureka deal with their life in a mature, responsible way, sacrificing their own comfort and desires for each other's benefit. Even when the stakes are life and death, and death seems inevitable, the choice to risk certain death so that others may live is made with equinamity and without tween-age sentiment and emotion - life requires hard choices, and in the end, sacrficing one's life is just another hard choice. For example, follow the character of Fargo in the Season 3 episode "I Do Over".
So yeah, I like the characters. I like watching these characters deal with the crisis of the week. I like the fact that they are adults. The super-science is just an added bonus to keep the geek interested, but I would watch this show even if it were set in Hoboken instead of Eureka. This is the best thing to happen to television in quite a long time.
With no new episode this week (Labor Day weekend), I want to know what other people think about this season's primary plot conceit. What makes this show so appealing? What's your favorite aspect of Eureka?
I've already stated that I thought the time-travel schtick was clever, especially once it looked to be permanent. We got familiar characters in a whole new world where anything was possible. It introduced new levels of dramatic tension to the world, and set us up for some awesome character arc payoffs at the end of the season. It gave us a long-form story arc that can actually resolve in several very satisfactory ways - as opposed to traditional tropes of "hero defeats the villain of the year" or "long-running mystery is resolved and villain is revealed".
The central appeal of Eureka for me lies in the fact that the characters are all functioning, mature, responsible adults. The show exists wholly apart from the kind of soap-opera emotional drama and self-obsessed, sexually central emoting that not only predominates prime-time television but has worked its way into most of popular entertainment. Not to say that "Eureka" is without drama, emotion, or sex. I like these characters, and I want them to find love and be happy with each other. But life gets in their way. Just life, nothing contrived or bizarre. But since this is Eureka, life here has a touch of the fantastic, a touch of wonder.
Aside from the super-science, this is recognizably my life. My kids are growing up. My friends are dealing with issues at work which I don't understand and the particulars of to which I can barely relate. My wife alternates between my best friend who reads my thoughts, and some strange pod person. My own occupation occasionally takes over everything, and my friends and family stare at me blankly while I try to explain the difference between kerning in Times New Roman and Georgia. I want my children to succeed in their activities, doing my best to get them to practice on time and help with projects - usually to their frustration. The characters in Eureka deal with their life in a mature, responsible way, sacrificing their own comfort and desires for each other's benefit. Even when the stakes are life and death, and death seems inevitable, the choice to risk certain death so that others may live is made with equinamity and without tween-age sentiment and emotion - life requires hard choices, and in the end, sacrficing one's life is just another hard choice. For example, follow the character of Fargo in the Season 3 episode "I Do Over".
So yeah, I like the characters. I like watching these characters deal with the crisis of the week. I like the fact that they are adults. The super-science is just an added bonus to keep the geek interested, but I would watch this show even if it were set in Hoboken instead of Eureka. This is the best thing to happen to television in quite a long time.
