I happened to tune into Hulu last night looking for some entertainment and their top scrolled landed on a a pilot for a new TV series titled “Human Target” (which is based on a comic, which I knew nothing about till I checked Wikipedia). I vaguely remember seeing a commercial for it that was interesting, so I gave it a shot.
The first thing I noticed is that the main character, a “Christopher Chance” looked very familiar. Turns out the actor, Mark Valley, was also on Fringe as Olivia’s boyfriend/partner. Amusing how many bit part players become main players on their own shows these days. The second thing that caught my attention was during the client ‘interview’, before she was even shown on screen, was that sexy Cylon voice we all love… Tricia Helfer. I know she had some notches in her belt before Battlestar Galactica, but damn that really launched her. She’s seems to be everywhere these days. She was in C&C3, Burn Notice, Chuck, Warehouse 13, Halo 3: ODST, Mass Effect 2 and StarCraft 2. Props to the casting people at ‘Human Target’, if you’re gonna start with style, go big.
I found it of great amusement that they decided to use the “Monterey Line”, a high speed rail line from San Fran to LA, as their backdrop for a majority of the first episode. Now the California High-Speed Rail project was approved by us voters to the tune of $10 billion, but they haven’t even STARTED it let alone get anywhere close to it being finished. Plus if CalTrans is anyway involved with the project, the sun with grow cold and die before the rail line is done. I guess Human Target just wants to stay slightly ahead of current? Hey, they even properly inflated the cost of the project to standard post-CalTrans specs… $82 billion.
The show definitely has a sense of humor, and I enjoy that. Just enough to take the edge off of the serious overtones. I’m not sure how I feel about the show yet, it was good, not great. There wasn’t nearly enough comedy to carry it on that. I felt that from an action perspective the show was a little bit too slow in a lot of portions. From a thriller perspective, there just wasn’t enough… thrill. I’m more than willing to watch more, but I think the show needs to find its feet, and pick a style.
Lastly, to kick a show while it is down… the intro sequence leaves a lot to be desired. It is… forgettable.
P.S. Danny Glover, that is definitely going big!