Show: Crash (Starz)
Episode: “Arteries; Crossroads” – Series Premiere (Season 1)
Premiere Date: Friday, October 17th, 2008
Rating: 3.0 out of 4 Stars
Quick Synopsis: We are all connected.
Long Synopsis: Story about the connections between an old record producer, his new driver, a pair of police officers, a detective, a Korean mobster, a former Korean gang member that is now a paramedic, a real-estate developer, the developer’s wife and father-in-law, and others.
Review: Crash is based on the 2005 Best Picture Oscar winner Crash
. It doesn’t continue the story, but re-imagines it. The series brings you a whole new set of characters whose lives intertwine in Los Angeles. I’ve never seen the movie, so I can’t tell you how it compares.
First, I’d like to say that it is very good, but kind of bleak. There isn’t anyone to really like, at least I didn’t. For me, I usually need someone or something to want to follow from week to week.
Not to say that everything has to be all cheery, cause it doesn’t. I really like Sons of Anarchy, which is pretty dark, but there are some likeable characters on that show. Ones you want to know more about, so you return each week to do so. Heck, there are even some pretty unlikable characters on that show, but you want to know more about them too. That was not the case here.
Don’t get me wrong, the acting is very good, especially Dennis Hopper. He gets the chance to be, well, very Dennis Hopper-ish. They just wind him up and let him go. His recording producer character is quite crazy, which seem perfectly suited to his acting persona.
Also, the story elements and how they hook things together are very well done. I usually like shows like this, where you are watching for how things are connected. How what someone does affects someone else’s life. Unfortunately, this portrayal is about how dirty cops, cheating husbands and wives, former gang members, Korean mobsters, crazy record producers and more unlikable characters all mesh together.
Overall, Crash is a quality show that just doesn’t interest me. I just don’t see myself wanting to keep up with these characters and their entanglements. It’s going to have a smaller audience since it is on a premium cable outlet, but there are a lot of other shows in the same time period.
On the network side, there is Numb3rs on CBS and Life on NBC. On regular cable, there is Sanctuary on Sci Fi and The Starter Wife on USA. It’s one thing to sit down and watch a two-hour movie, but another to want to follow this type of story for 13 weeks. I would rather watch any of the other shows just mentioned over this, even though this may actually be a better show than some of them.
Crash premieres tonight, Friday, October 17th on Starz. I’ll be interested to hear what others think about the series. Will you be watching Crash?
