Show: Eleventh Hour (CBS)
Episode: “Resurrection” – Series Premiere (Season 1)
Premiere Date: Thursday, October 9th, 2008
Rating: 3.5 out of 4 Stars
Quick Synopsis: Investigating cases of a scientific nature.
Long Synopsis: A guy gets caught trying to discard what turns out to be an aborted fetus. This leads to a possible group that is performing human cloning. A brilliant scientist and his security detail/partner are sent by the FBI to investigate the case.
Review: Eleventh Hour is great, one of the best new shows of the season. It was one of the shows I was looking forward to checking out and I was not disappointed.
Rufus Sewell (John Adams, Amazing Grace) is outstanding as the brilliant, but somewhat awkward, Dr. Jacob Hood. While the mystery is interesting, he is the main reason to watch. This episode provides a great introduction to his character and as stated before, I tend to like shows that revolve around a main character that is the smartest person in the room. This is the case with Dr. Hood.
The first episode of a show can be difficult and they don’t always reflect how good a series will turn out to be in the long run. Well, this is not the case here. This episode is an example of what a series premiere episode should be. It introduces the characters and the premise quite nicely. Granted, with only two main players, spending time on each is not a problem.
This first episode also introduces the nemesis factor. Dr. Hood has been on the trail of a person or group that pops up in this episode. Having an overarching story to periodically go back to is usually a good thing for these types of series and I think it will be here.
I’ve harped recently on a few shows being too slow or badly paced. Well, Eleventh Hour does moves slowly, but it doesn’t ever feel slow.
Overall, Eleventh Hour is totally worth checking out. Other than a couple of minor quibbles, the show is very enjoyable. It’s only major competition in the third hour of primetime will come from ABC’s Life on Mars, but seeing as how I’ve yet to see that one, I will give this the edge as of now.
Eleventh Hour premieres tonight, Thursday, October 9th on CBS.
