21.11.11

Taken TV Serial (second opinion)





Not so long ago I wrote that I started watching TV serial "Taken" produced by Spielberg.

It was really good from the start and I truly enjoyed it, though can't understand why is this called "mini series" since every episode lasted forever and even I couldn't go trough more than 2 per evening - maybe because today we have TV serials going on in seasons,so only ten episodes is not worth counting as a serious contender with other titles that go for years. However, I must say now that after first five episodes (that I really liked) everything went downhill for me, because writers and producers decided to place the main focus on present time where the center of everybody's attention become a little girl. So far we had government's secret agents, policemen, soldiers, journalists and the whole spectrum of interesting characters but now suddenly nobody is really important except a child and I'm not ten years old anymore so I don't connect with children's characters,I found it all very tedious,boring beyond words and unfortunately it came to the point that I had to stop watching it simply became annoying. Last two episodes were so boring,predictable and unwatchable that it almost destroyed everything I liked at the start.

The little girl with all her constant sobbing and supposedly alien powers was treated in a script like a new Messiah and it was all too sugary and cheesy for me. Her parents were even worse, saddled with truly horrendous lines and mostly were just hysterical - where earlier in episodes characters were believable and engaging,now this two were completely one-dimensional caricatures constantly screaming, yelling and basically going on my nerves. Mother:" I want my daughter!" Father:" What the hell is going on?" (And it goes like this from one episode to another,than another) I really wanted these two to be kidnapped by aliens and thrown out of the space ship into deep,big and dark universe forever. Only two actors still continued to interest me and those were Matt Frewer and Heather Donahue playing bad couple who are constantly trying to get this little girl locked up in some secret laboratory and oh how I wished they succeeded,lobotomized her and lived happily ever after. Not only that I really liked eccentric Frewer but was surprised to find out that strikingly attractive and interesting Donahue (who had something like Medusa-eyes about her, but like Bette Davis, once you seen her it's impossible to forget her) was actually playing in "Blair Witch Project" and for this role she was elegant & pretty that I didn't even recognize her!

Can someone please explain to me what is this about US TV (and movie) production where Spielberg pushes kids in the centre and surrounds them with cheesy script, lots of crying, sniffling, bawling and of course symphonic music all over the place just to drill the point into audience's heads? Is this really what people like to watch or is this the way people behave in USA? I don't expect entertainment to be "realistic" but please, this ending was so sugary that it really spoiled the whole serial for me.

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