Here are 2 reviews of Eureka! written by newspaper TV critics who saw advance copies.
Remember: they are looking at the show on a DVD sent to them by the network publicity dept. A key feature of these promo copies is that they have no commercials interrupting the flow of the story. Folks seeing the show as presented by the incredibly commercial laden Sci-Fi Channel might not have the same experience. =============================================== July 12, 2006 'Eureka'! Sci Fi's show has brains! Genius-laden town's residents are played by performers with certified smarts By Mike Hughes Gannett News Service July 12, 2006 http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060712/ENTERTAINMENT05/607120309/-1/ZONES04 We all know that small towns -- at least small towns on TV -- are full of the odd and the weird. "Northern Exposure" told us that. So did "Twin Peaks," "Picket Fences" and "Eerie, Indiana." But what would it be like to fill such a small town with scientific geniuses? Welcome to the Sci Fi Channel's "Eureka," which may be the summer's happiest surprise. The opening made-for-TV movie is scheduled for 9 to 11 p.m. Tuesday. After that, the show will be on from 9 to 10 p.m. Tuesdays. It's normal to be weird "Everybody is going to have eccentricities," says Jaime Paglia, one of the show's creators. "It's just more apparent in a small town because you're all kind of stuck in the same place." He's from Warrenton, a Northwest Oregon town of 4,100. Andrew Cosby, the other creator, is from Marietta, Ga. It has 59,000 people and is near Atlanta but he says it also "has the town square and definitely that sort of 'everybody's in each other's business' " kind of feel to it. They imagined a sort of company town. "It's always weird when people who socialize also have to work together," Cosby says. And they made it a semi- secret place full of pure science. It's the kind of place -- remember, this is the Sci Fi Channel -- where time can be warped, dimensions can be altered and things can blow up. Wandering in is a handsome U.S. marshal (Colin Ferguson), transporting an angry teenage girl (Jordan Hinson). That brings a mixture of comedy and offbeat drama. "He's a fish out of water," Ferguson says. "He always accomplishes his course, but nothing good ever happens along the way." There are other non-scientists, including cops (Maury Chaykin and Erica Cerra) and a federal official. "I can be dumb with Colin because I just work for the Department of Defense," Salli Richardson-Whitfield says of her character. Actually, all the characters may be quite bright. Compared to their neighbors, however, they don't seem that way. The show pretends Eureka was created after World War II, as a super brain trust. It also needs some regular folks. "What does it feel life if you're not one of the guys with the giant IQ?" Cosby asked. High-IQ cast The actors might also feel out of place here -- except that some of them could keep up with the geniuses in real life. Joe Morton, who plays an engineer and mechanic, is a brainy sort whose narration has added authority to many of TV's best documentaries. Ferguson is a world-traveler who grew up in Hong Kong, England, the United States. and Canada and taught high school at 19. Then there's Debrah Farentino. On the surface, she's a standard Hollywood beauty who co-starred in several series -- "Hooperman," "EZ Streets," "Earth 2" and "Get Real." Beyond that she says she made a key decision in 2001. "I had lunch with my agent and told him, 'I'm going to go be a scientist.' He's like, 'Yeah, right. Call me when you want to.' " She did go back to school and got a degree in molecular biology. "When I had to make my first live presentation I was more nervous than doing a naked love scene with Alec Baldwin," she recalled Her two worlds brought culture conflicts. "You look like . . . " "My lab partner . . . goes, ' 'You know, you look like the mom from "Get Real." ' "And I said, 'Well, I am.' "She almost broke our . . . (microscope) slide." Now Farentino plays a brilliant and manipulative psychotherapist. She also sometimes provides advice on the science in the show. "She brought in some books that were her light reading," Cosby says. "Jaime and I looked at each other and we're just going, 'I don't understand a word of it.' And we're smart guys." Smart guys by normal standards, they were facing a blitz of higher education. They felt . . . well, like the people who wander into "Eureka." ===================================================== In Sci Fi's Quirky 'Eureka,' Geniuses at Work By John Maynard Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, July 18, 2006; C07 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/17/AR2006071701410_pf.html One of the advantages of living in a small town populated by the world's smartest people is that even the cook in the local greasy spoon can somehow concoct anything you order. Fugu-sashi, salt-crusted yams and shaved white truffles are miraculously created with ease by a smarty-pants chef in tonight's "Eureka," Sci Fi's quirky new series about a town of geniuses working on top-secret government science projects. But life in the fictional Eureka also means enduring the explosions emanating from the basements of mad scientists, dodging the occasional stray black hole and, in tonight's pilot episode at least, being at the epicenter of the apocalypse. So it goes in "Eureka," the network's first Earth-based series that just might have those who've never watched Sci Fi scrolling their channel lineups to find it. If you're a regular viewer of the network -- whose hits include "Stargate: SG-1" and "Battlestar Galactica" -- be glad there's plenty of sci-fi to be found on "Eureka." And if Sci Fi's not on your TiVo, be glad that the show is driven more by characters than special effects (and so-so special effects at that). From a slightly insane dogcatcher (Matt Frewer), whose weapons of minor destruction can sever the limbs of livestock, to a sultry B&B proprietor/psychotherapist (Debrah Farentino) whose client list includes the president, Eureka is a town awash in eccentrics. Holding it all together is the appealing Colin Ferguson, who plays befuddled U.S. Marshal Jack Carter. Carter happens upon Eureka after he and his rebellious daughter get into a car accident just outside the city limits. When they reach downtown, he approaches a youngster, no older than 10, for directions. His bicycle basket holds a textbook for theoretical physics. When Carter's daughter calls the boy an Einstein, he responds, "I'm an Oppenheimer. The Einsteins live on Fourth." The first hour of tonight's two-hour pilot episode sets the stage in a brisk and mysterious fashion. Ferguson's deadpan expressions match his dry humor, but he is appropriately wide-eyed as his character stumbles upon one oddball occurrence after another. Tonight, Carter comes across an RV severed by one loose-screw scientist's time-bending invention. And then there's that patch of forest full of dead cows courtesy of our dogcatcher (in the show's most visually stunning scene). Veteran actor Joe Morton is another bright spot, playing Henry Deacon, the town's auto mechanic, who is used to working on far more complex vehicles. "I was an engineer back in the day," Deacon tells Carter when they meet. Carter: "Trains?" Deacon: "Space shuttles." Morton's character is instrumental in resolving tonight's plot, which gets a little muddled. One of the town's geeks has created a machine that sends objects hurling faster that the speed of light, but since this against the laws of physics, the end is near. "What the hell's going on?" Carter's daughter asks him. "Ah, there's this machine and a missing formula and science stuff I can't explain," Carter replies. The same might go for viewers when it comes to the plotline. But an episode involving a "Men in Black"-like memory-wiping machine is a bit easier to follow for those who are less than science-savvy. In the end, it's Eureka's townsfolk who keep the common viewer intrigued. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
