Date of airing: November 29, 2006 (ABC)
Nielsen ratings information: 4.75 million viewers, 3.3/5 in Households, 1.8/5 with Adults 18-49
written by: Henry Alonso Myers
directed by: Fred Keller
And I was wondering how Brett is going deal with this day if he has to waste at least half of it by helping Andrea from killing a guy and saving Eddie from a drug overdose or a suicide attempt. Both of these stories came out of nowhere and have not even been teased during the first three episodes, making me wonder why Andrea was so interested in helping out Brett before when she was obviously so busy with Eddie in the morning. Not to mention that her almost killing him was not even part of the narrative before – she did not call Brett about her big mistake before, and the writers did not attempt putting some of the stories into a narrative to tell the audience that Brett will get to deal with an even crazier day, now that he has to save another person from certain doom.
The
fact that Brett can change the day now, and some of his decisions or actions affect the characters the next time he wakes up at 6:18 a.m. feels like a cheap plot device for the
writers to conclude storylines they have started before and would not know how to finish otherwise, considering the show dealing with a time loop premise. But at least some of Brett’s
actions will have an outcome now (whether they will be positive or negative), which means the plot will have some form of development over the next couple of episodes. If Brett can affect the day's events before he even wakes up, what else can he change to help his case, prove his innocence and find Garza's real killer? In addition, this episode
showed that Brett does not need to have to deal with the major investigation for
an episode or two and he is allowed to go off helping some random stranger instead.
Just in case the writers were getting tired of the conspiracy storyline, or
they needed a reason to still write for the show after realizing that stuff
shit was going overboard quickly. After all, they were writing for a show that would potentially run for seasons on end – filling those episodes with a convoluted conspiracy-to-murder mystery would be too much after a while. It is too much already.
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| Brett is losing his patience and wants answers now! |
I mean, really?!? There was a second package, it happened to be part of a murder investigation 15 years prior, and Brett’s father was involved – those are pretty much three different twists that came out of nowhere (and after the writers dropped another plot element – the picture of the dead girl – into the narrative) and were supposed to enrich the conspiracy storyline, but I have no idea if any of that even makes sense. Now that Brett's father is somehow involved, it almost guarantees that things will be getting personal for Brett and the story will change drastically. Not to mention that Brett suddenly gets involved with a cold case from 15 years ago that involved his father, that involves a dead Assistant District Attorney Brett is destined to be the fall guy for ADA Garza, and that probably involves a bunch more people that we have not met yet. With the addition of Brett's father, the conspiracy grew a couple more characters, and I am not sure that was the right thing to do after four episodes. I assume the viewers have not deserved a breather yet, let alone character arcs (although this episode really tried with Andrea and Eddie), which is probably why they decided to jump ship quickly and have DAY BREAK turn into a ratings flop.
But yeah, I do not think that any of this will make sense in the long run. The first episode started with Brett getting kidnapped straight out of jail by the shadow people who also killed his girlfriend Rita and were following his sister Jennifer. Three hours later, the shadow people have decided not to kill Rita any longer for some reason (Brett did not get involved with her day at all, and she still ended up with Chad at home at the end), Jennifer does not seem to be followed by anyone, and now Brett's father is somehow involved. There needs to be a better connection, and I simply cannot see one. I am unable to think about a connection myself to make things coherent. Maybe this is what is called a "fustercluck" of a storyline – a mess this big after four episodes... Yeah, it is no mystery any longer why the show failed with audiences.
I have to mention it again that no one gives a damn about Rita any longer. She was being killed in daylight by the guys who followed Brett all morning long, which means they wanted something from him, and they wanted him to listen. I still question myself why they would not just kidnap either Rita or Jennifer (or both) to get Brett’s attention, especially now that he was not being caught by police, but maybe that would make just a little too much sense. I did find it kickass though that Brett decided to pull out his gun and shoot his followers who were sitting in the parked car in front of Jennifer's house. Considering that Randall was sitting in there as well (and he could have caught a wound or two), it was pretty ballsy of Brett to rain bullets on the shadow villains. Plus, the weirdness that was the entire scene itself... Randall was most likely being kidnapped by those two guys, and Brett essentially just rescued him, yet a gun was being held at his head and he was being threatened by his "savior."
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| This romantic storyline is going to fall apart today. |
Ugh, none of it makes sense. Not Brett getting kidnapped, not
Jennifer hiding the second package, not Rita *not* getting kidnapped...
if it sounds like I am getting frustrated with the show, it is because I
am. The
change from a highly serialized conspiracy thriller to an episodic drama
about characters in peril who need help is drastic, but it could help the show get focused on the little things, so that the big things can breathe a bit and give the audience an opportunity to accept the twists and turns. What this episode told me is that there does not have to be 40 minutes of
conspiracy thriller in an hour, and there can be some character drama instead. DAY BREAK should have been like this from the beginning.
