Date of airing: November 15, 2006 (ABC)
Nielsen ratings information: 10.16 million viewers, 6.8/10 in Households, 3.6/9 with Adults 18-49
written by: Paul Zbyszewski
directed by: Rob Bowman
I think I should count the iterations of the day Brett is living over
and over, because maybe that might be fun, and maybe somebody
might ask themselves if Brett will live through the same day as many
times as Bill Murray did in GROUNDHOG DAY, who, according to theories,
might have spent a couple of centuries trapped in the time loop. If
Brett happens to spend a few thousand years in his time loop as well,
he should have all the information he needs to end the conspiracy arc against him, as well as save everyone's lives who were dying on that day. After a century of living through this day over and over, he should be solving the conspiracy the minute he wakes up. If the show actually
ends this way after thirteen episodes, that would be pretty cool. But this is a television show,
and as such it has to take itself seriously, so the cool and hilarious
ending will never be the case. At least I do not think it will.
This episode happened to be better than the pilot. Brett only woke up once at 6:18 a.m., and he did not even wake up then because he was unconscious and bleeding out. So, this episode pretty much had versions three and four of the day, and version three (the titular premise of what is going to happen when Brett and Rita just leave town and drive through the desert) was quite solid, since it slowed things down and created a story between Brett and Rita. It was interesting to notice that she was readily available to assist him in proving his innocence, which means he can easily ask her at 6:19 a.m. if she wants to help him solve the mystery of a conspiracy and a murder, and Moon Bloodgood could jump right into some action sequences and make me happy in the process (I am a bit disappointed that Hollywood has not given her an action franchise, even if it just flopped in the end – a role in the Fast & Furious franchise, right beside Michelle Rodriguez, would be a good fit for her). What was annoying though is that Brett did not think it important to tell Rita the second time about the time loop. Although she did not quit believing him the first time he told her (although maybe she just had difficulties accepting the ludicrous premise of a time loop), he could have started using the information he already knows, and made it easier for her to understand. But then again, Brett probably just did not want to deal with a non-believer, wasting time in the process, when he had other things to do.
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| The notes states it clearly. |
The episode also gave some answers as to how many people Brett might
be able to trust. Rita because she is a helpful person and can distract cops for Brett to do his thing (although I am expecting a twist here,
because that is how television works, and I do not believe that this is all what Rita is about), but Brett's partner Andrea and Christopher Choi revealed themselves as good people in this episode as well, with the former assisting
him on day three (even believing him from the get-go about the conspiracy), and the latter being confused about the gun in the
closet during day four, which means he should not be involved in the
conspiracy against Brett at all and only is part of the story to actually solve the murder of Garza. It was probably a nice way to throw Brett a
bone here and figure that he might be able to trust Choi here and work with him against the conspiracy makers in one of the next episodes. Or maybe I was just misreading the scene here and Choi is still one of the villains, together with everyone else who jumped in front of a camera so far (maybe even the lady who gets hit by a bus).
But other than that, the story did not move forward at all. In fact, it made sure that every iteration of the day can look different, and it tells the viewers that during every minute. Brett and Rita were on the run, which makes this episode look extremely different from the previous one, and the fourth day started for him in the hospital, already bringing change into the whole time loop process by having Brett carry the injuries from the previous loop into the next one (how convenient that this is the case, although it is necessary for plot development). I guess I do not have to fear that every day will start the same when on day four, the writers decided to have Brett wake up in the hospital instead of beside Rita.
Mythology-wise, the episode did give me some hope as to how Brett
might be able to use the time loop to his physical advantage. When his
injuries were carried to the beginning of the day again, it might be
possible that he could hide something in his body and take it back with
him. All he might need is something small enough to stick it up his butt,
and he can hide evidence or certain information and hopefully
transfer it through the loop to the beginning of the day – it would
certainly be a thing to try out and see if it works. I would definitely
want to try that out. What a shame that Rita removed the bullet on day three, because then we would have found out if objects inside Brett's body carry over to the next day. Although... Would the writers have thought about this part of the science-fiction mythology?
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| We are starting the day off with a heavy bleeder. |
But there is something about the show that I despise: I do not like the visual style. The constant flashes and zooms over grainy images have already annoyed me during TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES, and now it looks like the FOX show from 2008 even stole its style from DAY BREAK. Also, it looks like the series have been quite cheap to shoot. Taye Diggs is omnipresent in almost every minute so far (Andrea was allowed to have screen presence without Brett being in the scene this episode), proving that this is not an ensemble drama, and characters could just be dropped willy-nilly into Mandyville. Plus, the producers did not have to hire many extras for the scenes, as more than half of the episode was set in a shady motel with no other people around. The shootouts are also pretty cheap. During the motel sequence, the shaky cam and the hypersensitive editing style served as a trick to make the scene look tenser than it actually was. Not to mention the guy with the automatic rifle who shot at the police car. For one, none of the bullets seemed to have hit the car, and number two, did this guy ever reload? it sounded like he was firing off thousands of rounds at once.
That brings me to wonder if the budget might have been another reason
the show did not make it with viewers and got prematurely canceled. If you have to hide your
shortcomings via absurd and hypersensitive editing, viewers will notice,
and you will lose about four million of them over the week. Viewers do not want to be whiplashed like that.
