To recap, this week’s episode took us to a police station with a half-dozen officers. Three of them would be out on patrol, while the other three would be holding down the fort, keeping an eye on a serial killer who was staying the night. He wasn’t the run-of-the-mill serial killer; he enjoys to eat his victims, sometimes when they’re still alive.

I admit that I initially thought the show may have some potential. There were recognizable names and faces attached to this episode, but it was a big disappointment.

The first ten minutes were loaded with boring cliches about female cops and rookie cops not being respected and all that. It wasn’t long after that that we learned she was into horror movies and magazines.

When we get right into the heart of the show, it took about two seconds to realize what was going on. How the “eater” managed to sneak his voodoo stick into the station after being patted down ten times is beyond me. Any hope of this being a good episode was gone right then and there when he took that little stick out of his sleeve.

Stephen R. Hart as Mellor, Elisabeth Moss as Bannerman

The twist at the end didn’t do anything for me. It didn’t make any sense whatsoever that the rat poison would have such an impact on “Eater” that quickly. He seemed to die about the same time as the cop did and yet she ate that crap a few minutes before he did.

The last problem with this episode was the lighting. Lighting can be good when used properly, but it was used too much here. The constant flickering became annoying after a while and by the final scene’s close, it was a real drag. It was already established that the station had a creepy feeling to it. If the lights were kept on during the second half of the episode for 75% of the time, I don’t think that feeling would have gone away.

When was the last time you saw a GOOD horror movie/TV show? Personally, I’ve never seen one that really impressed me. I just wish we’d get one good episode out of this series.

Rating: 5.3

I was hoping for some of that great writing would come into play here, thinking that maybe Roday would have a hand in the script like he does on PSYCH. Looking back, however, even if he did help write an occasional joke, this episode was never going to get very much praise from me.

Roday and Lawson wondering why they agreed to do this show.

The fact that Roday and Lawson are dating in real life makes this episode all the better. Yeah, this is a horror series, but you know they must have had a little fun with it in-between takes.

It didn’t take long for me to have some serious doubts about this episode. In fact, it was about the same time that Samantha received the note that things went south. Why would she believe such an outrageous thing in the first place? Why would she act the way she did?

James Roday, who played Carlos, was just terrible to watch. I don’t blame him for it; it’s the writing, not the acting. He played a psychopath through most of the episode, and for no reason. I had a hard time believing much of what happened in this episode. It was really tough to stomach. Everything was unbelievable.

I was pretty pissed when the big twist was revealed. An entire hour was dedicated to setting up a huge plot twist, revealing Lawson’s character, Samantha, as the real serial killer. If this plot were that of a movie, I would have demanded my money back. Why must this entire series be entirely composed of M. Night Shyamalan-style twists, revealed in the last one or two scenes?

One or two more episodes like this one, and NBC should pull the plug on this suck-fest.

On a lighter note, The X-Files veteran William B. Davis had a role in the episode. I haven’t seen him in anything in quite a while. It was good to see him again.

Rating: 4.0

Colin Ferguson and Clifton Collins, Jr.

Here, Ferguson, played the all-around good American husband and father, while Clifton Collins, Jr. was the serial killer, murdering dozens of men, women, and children. They’ve very different people and with the good guy in prison, the “Family Man,” as dubbed by the media, is out, free.

You knew how the show would go from the beginning. There wasn’t anything deeply moving or troubling in the episode; it pretty much went by the book, so to speak. You felt for Ferguson’s character and hoped he’d be reunited with his family like in Face/Off, but the plot twist at the end put any hope of that at rest.

The last-scene plot twists have been present in each of the first three episodes. These little twists can be great (like the pilot), but you really sensed how this one would play out. So, again, there wasn’t anything particularly great here, but it’s a decent hour of television.

Rating: 6.4

The series premiere was good, about what I expected, but the follow-up was more of a psychological thriller than the creepy monster type of program we saw in the premiere. The show was about a police officer named Harry Bender, played by veteran actor Eric Roberts. Seeing Bender being one of those cops who does whatever he has to do to get the job done ticks me off. Being a police officer is one of the goals I have had for a while and I just hate seeing the bad cops ruin the reputation for everyone else.

Eric Roberts as Harry Bender and Harry Siegal

After getting fired for his handling of a witness/suspect, Bender wound up a drunken private investigator, looking into rumors of cheating spouses and that sort of thing. This was rather cliche and unimaginative.

After dealing with a case, he and his partner get another one. Meredith Kane (Cynthia Watros) claims to have a cheating husband and asks them to keep an eye on them. It all seems like the typical setup, but that all changes when they begin working in an abandoned house.

Harry begins hearing and seeing things. I give the producers credit. That house had a creepy look to it, but some of the stuff on the wall looked pretty amateurish. That being said, it was Cynthia Watros who ended up being the star of the show in my eyes. Just when we see that her unusual character on Lost never seems to really go away, she pops up here with another creepy character. Won’t Libby ever disappear?

“Spooked” wasn’t as good as I thought it would be, but it could have been far worse. I like psychological thrillers and this was a decent one, as far as network television could provide.

Rating: 6.2

The two actors are dating one another in real life, which makes it all the more fitting for the two to star as a couple who are about to get married when Lawson’s character receives a mysterious note that reads: “The person you are marrying is a serial killer,” and casts a shadow over her perfect day.

The episode airs this Thursday at 10pm ET/PT on NBC.

James Chamberlin

I was really shocked when USA canceled both The Dead Zone and The 4400. Although The Dead Zone had seen better days and I would agree it would have been on my chopping block if I were heading up the network, I never saw The 4400 getting axed. This was a pretty big shakeup for me because during the summer, I always turn to USA for the terrific programming there.

There are a few decent shows on now… In Plain Sight, Fear Itself, Dirty Jobs, The Mole, but the good stuff isn’t here yet. I’m still waiting for PSYCH, Monk, and Burn Notice (all USA shows) to air this July. Burn Notice was a lot of fun to watch last year. I can’t wait to see it this year now that USA has an HD channel in the U.S.

I’ll probably catch up on some of my fall TV viewing. I’m still behind on several shows. I didn’t seem to have enough time to catch everything this past season. Other than In Plain Sight, the only new series I expect to be watching is ABC’s Wipeout. It looks like some of the Japanese gameshows I’ve enjoyed watching on cable TV.

Eric Lizotte

With summer comes several tasty TV treats. One of which is the most excellent Burn Notice, which is coming back for its second season this July. There’s nothing quite like quasi-realistic spy action–oh, not to forget ex-girlfriends that know to… handle themselves–to lift ones spirits. So, it’ll definitely be worth tuning into to see what Michael Weston and company get up to this time round, especially since he’s off to meet the man who burned him, or is he?

Another sweet morsel to check out this summer–particularly if you’re a history buff or like fun, useless knowledge–is PBS’s History Detectives. The researchers on this show are all top notch and are always able, through their findings, it seems, no matter how obscure the topic or item in question, to bring history to life.

Charles White

I don’t feel like there’s really anything special coming out this summer. Unfortunately due to the writer’s strike, a lot of the shows that I see are reality shows ripped off of other reality shows I’ve seen. There are a couple of shows though out there that might hold us over ’til summer.

In Plain Sight is interesting; it’s not nearly as good or as fun to watch as Burn Notice, but it has potential. Mary is an interesting character and even though she’s female, she very much has a male mindset. The show has started off decent, but it needs something more. The concept of the show is that she works in the witness protection, but in my opinion the interesting part is watching Mary control her personal life. There should be more personal life problems in this show and more of a focus on how much trouble she has balancing her personal and work life.

Weeds is probably my most anticipated show that I’m waiting for. Last season Nancy was forced to move out of Agrestic. The cast will be changed or downgraded quite a bit this season, so it should be interesting to see if Weeds has jumped the shark or if this could be the best thing for the show.

I’m also watching So You Think You Can Dance, which to me is better then American Idol. With the contestants and judges, it feels like this show really wants to help the contestants and you can see the passion that the dancers have.

I’d also like to start watching Burn Notice, I didn’t watch much of the first season, due to lack of time, but it was a very fun show to watch. This summer seems a little dry, but along with the shows I’ve mentioned, there will probably be some hidden gems that pop up along the way this summer.

This week’s story focused on criminals who find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere. They find an old house and are befriended by three women. The guys think that these women are here to help, but they soon find out that these women are trying to kill them. One by one, the men all stupidly fall for these seductive women, and one by one, each of the men get into deadly situations which end up leading to death for all of them.

First off, trying to fit a good horror story in an hour is a hard task. Most movies don’t even fit a good horror story with the time they’re given. It’s hard to tell exactly what Fear Itself is aiming for. It’s not really a blood-fest, and there’s no actual sex scenes or really anything close to sex in the show, and it’s not scary in that jumpy type of way.

Every episode is going to be a different story and every episode will be directed by somebody else. This would be interesting, but the problem is that I can’t imagine there being any episode too good in the future. There’s just not enough time or as much lee way on national broadcast tv to get any good horror out of the show.

The acting was horrible, and at some points, the dialogue was hard to listen too. I think this was probably the wrong choice to pick up this show at all. This just wasn’t a good first episode and I doubt that it’ll get any better from here on out.

Fear Itself – The Sacrifice
Original Air Date: June 05, 2008

Rating: 4.9