Season 1, Episode 2
Date of airing: October 5, 1996 (CBS)
Nielsen ratings information: 17.6 million viewers, 11.9/22 in Households
Written by: Bob Brush, John Romano
Directed by: Michael Dinner
When is there ever a post-pilot episode that happens to be better than the actual pilot? EARLY EDITION possibly goes down that route, making this hour of television one of the unexpectedly greatest episodes, despite the fact that there isn’t anything special or spectacular about it. It’s just a simple episode about a man receiving tomorrow’s newspaper today. But as it turns out, this hour showed that the writers weren’t just working on EARLY EDITION to cut their checks and go home to their families and enjoy dinner. This was a show – at least for the first two episodes – that tried to be something else, that wanted to be more than just mediocre and solid Saturday primetime entertainment, that wanted to deliver more than the general premise of Gary Hobson saving lives in every episode. Maybe the writers wanted to redefine what it’s like to watch a show on Saturday evenings, and maybe the writers wanted to prove that there can be more to a proceduralized show than stand-alone stories each week, during which you only have to follow what the characters are saying. Maybe you are supposed to question Gary’s choices, while also thinking about how much the future can change, even though you only had the slightest impact on it. Maybe the show also wanted to ask the question of how much impact Gary’s choices will have on the characters in the show, even if those choices become meaningless as soon as the hour is over.
Because what are you supposed to think about the title page headline changing after Gary had already read the traffic jam headline? What had to happen for the headline to change and for a plane crash to lead tomorrow’s edition of the Chicago Sun-Times? When you look at time and time travel, it almost seems obvious that when Gary received tomorrow’s paper, the plane crash wasn’t supposed to happen. But later, when he had breakfast with Chuck and Marissa, the plane crash made itself noticeable on the front page, and that usually means something happened – either Gary’s actions between waking up and receiving the paper, and sitting down to breakfast with his best friends created a butterfly effect leading to the crash, or the writers just messed that one up big. And if the latter is the case, it didn’t even diminish the experience of watching the episode, as it put Gary in front of Sophie’s Choice, and it turned out that such a plot device makes for wonderful and highly emotional drama television, even if the outcome of the entire story was rather convenient (and expected, considering the family-friendly nature of the show).
This episode worked because of the choice Gary was forced to make,
and the choice he eventually made on the train tracks, even if his
ability to hear a girl bike away from a distance seemed kind of
questionable at first. But in hindsight, it could have been just part of
the choice Gary was making, for the universe to lead Gary to Amanda,
because as the universe knows by now, when Gary sticks with Amanda, 190
more lives will be saved an hour later. This may add a whole lot of
fate-based mysticism into the show, which the writers didn’t intend to
include (or may have been told by CBS to do so, since EARLY EDITION followed TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL on the timeslot), but it makes for a wonderful way of thinking about this show
and how the characters were affected by the decisions they make. Besides
that, Gary noticing the girl on the bike and making that decision to go
after her was by itself a very strong scene and shows aren’t generally
known to deliver strong and memorable scenes one episode after the
pilot. That scene established Gary as the hero, albeit a conflicted one –
making one decision over another, and potentially having to live with
the consequences. Isn’t that what a great hero is all about?
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| Gary makes his choice at 15 miles per hour. |
Still, there were a few elements in this episode that made me shake my head just a little bit. Gary seems to believe he is always alone in his deed to save the people, but he has two friends who could assist him if he could just pressure them enough. Marissa is eager to help Gary out, and Chuck could be convinced to help, as each time Gary is successful in convincing him, some piece of Chuck’s heart is discovered and it makes him a more likable character – it’s not like Chuck was completely adamant in not helping Gary to prevent the plane from crashing in this episode. Gary’s apparent distrust in his two friends might have been a nice plot device to further the episode’s plot of him having to make the choice though. On the other side of the coin, maybe Gary starts to trust his friends a little more and they will become more involved in the “bigger cases” Gary will have to deal with in future adventures. But what can be bigger than a plane crash? In twenty-first-century terms, it’s a terrorist attack, but not having watched a lot of pre-2000 shows, I don’t even know how many terrorist attacks were depicted in non-genre and non-action shows.
A few quick words about the overall mythology of the show, if there even is one: Gary was thrown into making his choice and he didn’t know he was forced to do so at first. Later, Gary was thrown into the mystery of it all, without even wanting to know anything about where the paper is coming from. The universe seems to be directing this young man from Chicago to not only do the deeds he was “hired” to do, but to also find out more about the past of the paper and maybe even the cat. The notion of Gary finding a picture of the kitten seems a bit silly in hindsight, but it kickstarts a potentially great story the writers were able to go back to whenever they were in the mood to write a bit more about the mythology of the show, instead of trying to put Gary into lifesaving mission over and over. Besides that, the universe wants Gary to look into the past of the paper. There is a reason the book found its way back to his hotel room. There is also a reason Gary was initially not interested in solving the mystery, even if he was interested in knowing where the paper comes from. It’s as equally a conflicted arc as Gary’s decision-making was throughout this episode.
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| Chuck should get used to being institutionalized. |
By the way, Gary gets the paper for only a week, but Gary is already able to go the extra mile by dressing up as a doctor and making his way through everyone who side-eyes him, from the people at the admin desk to the two doctors in the locker room, and through everyone that doesn’t believe what he had to say. If Gary doesn’t shy away from potentially breaking a few rules and laws, then the man truly is the hero we don’t deserve. Would Gary Hobson be a great Captain America? Would Kyle Chandler have been a great Captain America if he had been cast for the role in 2010? And finally, the mention of CHICAGO HOPE at the hit-and-run accident site came over a little weird. It’s a prime example of CBS synergy, and sometimes it just makes me squirm. Especially since CHICAGO HOPE wasn’t even the most successful medical drama on television in 1996. “No, I only watch ER” is what Gary should have responded with. That would have been hilarious.
