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Review: Three Inches 01x01 (Pilot)
Jan. 3rd, 2012 05:23 pm***PUBLIC BECAUSE IT'S IMPORTANT TO ME THAT EVERYONE KNOWS ABOUT THIS***
Can you believe it, but on the day this was getting screened I completely forgot about it. Fortunately![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gossy16 reminded me IT’S PILOT TIME (she was watching something else) which gave my brain the poke it needed. Unfortunately I also jumped a little too early in trying to hunt the thing down as it hadn’t even screened in the US when I was looking *headdesk* After much angsting and searching I FINALLY managed to get my hands on the pilot episode of Three Inches.
To give you a bit of background, in September 2010 SyFy got a gangbuster of sci-fi, fantasy & horror tv stars, put them all into a little place called Toronto and filmed a TV show about an underachieveing guy who in a WORST-DAY-OF-MY-LIFE (ala fellow Canadian show Being Erica) scenario gits hit by lightning in which he suddenly obtains superpowers – of the less than fantastic kind (he can telekinetically move things, but only three inches). He’s hunted down by the Charles Xavier of this world (James Marsters) to join a group of equally unimpressive superheroes (apparently akin to the UK show Misfits which I haven’t seen so can’t comment on) to “save the world”. And that’s the episode in a nutshell, of course incorporating the first mission. As far as SyFy are concerned, because they made Alphas at the same time and green lit that one, they didn’t know what to do with this one as they thought it was too similar a show and wanted to change it from a mission based drama to a character based drama, or to a half hour comedy (and now having seen the ep, I can see where these thoughts came from. I’ll elaborate under the cut), but instead decided to shelve the project altogether.
So what I expected was to see MY BOY (yes, I’m claiming him) Kyle Schmid heading up the team without any superpowers (hence why he’s called “Captain Normal”), James Marsters in some kind of role, plus Naoko Mori from Torchwood and, as I found out at T3, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles/Battlestar Galactica star Stephanie Jacobsen as Kyle’s love interest. OH and Brandon Jay McLaren was in there somewhere too which I was pleased about considering he’s been all over my radar the past two years and I’ve loved him in everything I’ve seen him in.
Here’s what I didn’t expect to see – a bunch of Supernatural stars by the name of Alona Tal (Jo in SPN, Lily in this show) and Julian Richings (Death in SPN, Ethan/Insect Man in this show). I also didn’t expect Walter (played by newbie Noah Reid) to be so damn likeable, nor his mother (played by Andrea Martin) to be so damn funny.
( Spoilers for the episode, my thoughts and views on where it did & didn’t go well and what I’d have liked to have seen )
Ultimately I really liked it, and so did my mum who I forced to watch with me. I had to break the news that this was the only one. From the online reaction I’ve seen, everyone else had the same view – they liked it and wanted to see more. Most people actually claimed it was a better show than Alphas (which again I haven’t seen so can’t comment). And everyone seems to agree that it is a sad waste of talent to lose a show with so many (and even more than I thought!) cult tv personalities on it.
Can you believe it, but on the day this was getting screened I completely forgot about it. Fortunately
gossy16 reminded me IT’S PILOT TIME (she was watching something else) which gave my brain the poke it needed. Unfortunately I also jumped a little too early in trying to hunt the thing down as it hadn’t even screened in the US when I was looking *headdesk* After much angsting and searching I FINALLY managed to get my hands on the pilot episode of Three Inches.To give you a bit of background, in September 2010 SyFy got a gangbuster of sci-fi, fantasy & horror tv stars, put them all into a little place called Toronto and filmed a TV show about an underachieveing guy who in a WORST-DAY-OF-MY-LIFE (ala fellow Canadian show Being Erica) scenario gits hit by lightning in which he suddenly obtains superpowers – of the less than fantastic kind (he can telekinetically move things, but only three inches). He’s hunted down by the Charles Xavier of this world (James Marsters) to join a group of equally unimpressive superheroes (apparently akin to the UK show Misfits which I haven’t seen so can’t comment on) to “save the world”. And that’s the episode in a nutshell, of course incorporating the first mission. As far as SyFy are concerned, because they made Alphas at the same time and green lit that one, they didn’t know what to do with this one as they thought it was too similar a show and wanted to change it from a mission based drama to a character based drama, or to a half hour comedy (and now having seen the ep, I can see where these thoughts came from. I’ll elaborate under the cut), but instead decided to shelve the project altogether.
So what I expected was to see MY BOY (yes, I’m claiming him) Kyle Schmid heading up the team without any superpowers (hence why he’s called “Captain Normal”), James Marsters in some kind of role, plus Naoko Mori from Torchwood and, as I found out at T3, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles/Battlestar Galactica star Stephanie Jacobsen as Kyle’s love interest. OH and Brandon Jay McLaren was in there somewhere too which I was pleased about considering he’s been all over my radar the past two years and I’ve loved him in everything I’ve seen him in.
Here’s what I didn’t expect to see – a bunch of Supernatural stars by the name of Alona Tal (Jo in SPN, Lily in this show) and Julian Richings (Death in SPN, Ethan/Insect Man in this show). I also didn’t expect Walter (played by newbie Noah Reid) to be so damn likeable, nor his mother (played by Andrea Martin) to be so damn funny.
( Spoilers for the episode, my thoughts and views on where it did & didn’t go well and what I’d have liked to have seen )
Ultimately I really liked it, and so did my mum who I forced to watch with me. I had to break the news that this was the only one. From the online reaction I’ve seen, everyone else had the same view – they liked it and wanted to see more. Most people actually claimed it was a better show than Alphas (which again I haven’t seen so can’t comment). And everyone seems to agree that it is a sad waste of talent to lose a show with so many (and even more than I thought!) cult tv personalities on it.
