Show: Threshold
Episode: Series Premiere
Originally Aired: Friday, September 16th 2005
Rating 1½ out of 4 stars
Quick Synopsis: Aliens invaded stealthily, we need to find out why and what to do about.
Long Synopsis: A ship is attacked by an alien craft of some sort. The crew is changed into monsters that try to kill one another or themselves. Seven of them make it of the ship before it is destroyed. They are hard to kill. To combat this worst-case scenario plan Threshold is invoked by the U.S. government to assess what they are here for and what they need to do. The plan calls for an elite team of smarter than smart people to be assembled to appraise the situation. Each week they will attempt to learn more about what is happening as they investigate weird occurrences that they believe to be associated with the Alien invasion.
Review: This show was annoying. With every commercial break being preceded by some sort of mini cliffhanger or some peak in the action of the story or some big reveal of information. This was not done in an entertaining way like The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr. was, where each segment ended in with cliffhanger. It was done to try and heighten the story with some suspense and foreboding. It didn’t.
The overall idea of the story is interesting. It is just told poorly. The 2-hour premiere was like watching 10 mini episodes, too jerky, too many peaks and valleys for me. If this style of story telling continues in future episodes, I don’t see myself watching. It may prove to be a decent lead in for Numbers, which is a good show on CBS.
The acting was fine. Brent Spiner investigating aliens as a human instead of a life like robot is good as the trapped in the lab scientist running experiments and tests. Charles S. Dutton is good as the government man in charge of the newly created Threshold unit. And I could watch Carla Gugino in just about anything. Unfortunately this show just makes me wish that Karen Sisco was still on the air. That was a good show.
Friday night is tough though for TV shows. Its main competition will be from the Fox show Killer Instinct, formerly titled The Gate, for those looking for drama type thrillers. Other choices are comedies on The WB and ABC and the new dream granting show Three Wishes on NBC. Also, the WWE Smackdown! will still be going on UPN. Hopefully Killer Instinct will be good or I will be biding my time watching some comedies until Numbers comes on.
