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I'm usually the first to hop aboard a new show, especially if it's got a good enough cast and plot. The CW has steadily been getting better with their selection of shows and how ambitious they are in only getting the best possible content to share with their teenage/young adult/college student demographic. And their shows have steadily increased my thirst for TV.
And the CW's recently cancelled show, Cult, was no exception. They had a really cool/interesting plot line and I know critics really don't like the show within a show concept because it's rarely done so well, but who listens to critics anyway? Most of them are white tired guys who are too cynical to accurately comment on a show or movie. All in all, Cult wasn't a completely bad show. They had good, well established actors who brought an extra cache to the show and the storyline was interesting enough to at least pique people's interests.
However, they did drop the ball in plenty of areas. I'm going to talk about the characters first, and then the plot, and then where they went wrong and why the CW ultimately cancelled it and the reasons it could have done better. Sounds like a lot but it isn't!
THE CHARACTERS
First, I'm going to talk about the main character of the show, Jeff Sefton, played by Matthew Davis who we all know from Vampire Diaries. You already know how amazing an actor he is but his character on this show wasn't all too different from his character on VD. He's still playing the mature father figure to a wayward young adult who doesn't have any real positive adults in their lives. He plays an older brother this time on Cult to a screw up younger brother. Granted, Jeff isn't doing so great himself. He's a newspaper columnist who's on the verge of losing his job and now he has to clean up another mess left by his little brother because their parents were gone at a young age. (don't you love how convient it is to have parents out of the picture?)
His brother, Nate, played by James Pizzinato who won't get his own profile, calls him up and tells Jeff that he thinks there's a group following him, a group of true believers of the TV show Cult, and are out to take him out. He's worried, he's paranoid, and Jeff thinks he's riding the white dragon again. But when Nate does end up missing, Jeff makes it his life mission to find his little brother and so embarks his journey on finding out what it all means in the grand scheme of things.
Okay, I could buy this. After all Matthew Davis just has this protective look about him where he's going to get nothing but these roles. I couldn't help thinking though that I wanted more from his character. He was a little too cookie cutout for me and I know Davis can deliver. I'm not completely blaming the writers but actors can only do so much with what they're given. I don't know, but I know I expected a little more. You would think a journalist would have no problem diggin' stuff up but hey, what do I know?
Next up is Skye Yarrow played by Jessica Lucas. I was actually surprised that I liked her character. I've only ever seen her in "The Covenant" with Steven Strait and Sebastian Stan and while she wasn't too bad, I can't say I warmed to her very much. But in Cult, she was a very well rounded character. She was tough without being manly, she was vulnerable without looking weak, she was smart without lording it over people, but what I didn't like was her whole deer in the headlights thing she had going. It wasn't in the common sense where she was a ditz and heavily relied on people to clue her in. It was more in the sense that it was too obvious that her and Jeff were going to be love interests. I mean, come on! And what I'm noticing in books and TV is that a lot of characters are just reacting to what's going on around them instead of proactively engaging in it.
Like, I get that this is a situation where a lot of stuff happens, and the only thing you can do is react but I felt like Jeff was providing most of the help. He tracked down leads, he got information from his tech friend who is obviously in love with him and he doesn't know it, he's figuring out certain clues that leads them further down the rabbit hole. And at most she's the one who provides everything Cult related because she works on the show, she can get certain answers that Jeff can't but it still felt like he was pulling all the weight and she was just along for the ride.
And we're off to Kelly Collins played by Alona Tal. I don't know what to say. Kudos for pulling double duty? She has to play herself and a character in a fictionlized TV show. But I just found her lacking. There was nothing overly exciting about either of characters. On the show she played this cop who was after Billy because he took her sister and she used to belong to the cult and whatever. But she had a serious hard on for Billy which is understandable because hey, it's Robert Knepper. But that was about it. It was like she didn't have a life outside of bringing Billy to justice.
And with her character outside of the show was even more lacking. Again, it was like she didn't have a life outside of the show. I know, in the grand scheme of things, she isn't all that important. But still, I don't like useless characters. I feel that as a writer, it's your sole purpose to make sure every scene, every word, every action is driving the story forward to some kind of master plan but when it came to Kelly, I simply didn't know what it was. She acted like she didn't know the extent of her success and fan craziness from the show and then wanted to get mad whenever someone reminded her of it.
And of course, what is this show without the man himself: Billy Grimm? Played hypnotically by Robert Knepper, I couldn't imagine anyone else playing this role. I feel like they wouldn't have brought the same charisma that Robert could bring. Obviously, I almost only wanted to watch this show because of him and with good reason! He's been in other movies and TV but I remember him most notably from Heroes. He had that same charm in getting people to do his bidding and like doing it and what I liked is that though these characters were really similar, Robert made them really different.
This is a real example of actors making the best of what they have. Billy could have easily been this caricature of cult leader, but Robert never let it go that far. I never knew what to expect from Billy both from the show and from outside the show. Was he in on the true believers, which was his real personality, was he aware of what was going on, or did he truly not know? There are times when I think he's in on it, and other times where I'm like no, there's no way he could possibly know. I will say that I wish his real character had a meatier storyline than his cult character. Because the cult character was this charming guy who really had a dark side but when it came to his real character, he was just a joe blow doing his job. While there's nothing wrong with that and I know there needed to be a clear contrast to both characters, still I felt like his real character was just there to fill screen space.
There are other characters, obviously, but I feel like just with these four, you get a clear sense of what the show is about and what the writers were trying to accomplish when they wrote this. I think they were making four different shows. There was the real show, there was the fictionalized show, and then it was Billy and Kelly show outside of the fictionalized show and then Jeff and Skye show. There was nothing gluing these halves of shows and it showed, a lot.
THE PLOT
Basically, this is a show about a TV show in which fans have taken it a step too far. They love the show so much that they believe there's some kind of conspiracy surrounding it. They believe the creator is sending out hidden messages and codes through the show telling "true believers" what to do, how to act, and so on and so forth. These believers carry out certain devious acts and replicate certain scenes from the show. Nate, Jeff's brother, has become roped into the sub culture and with each new episode, it becomes increasingly clear that he's okay, he's not missing, and that he's going through some kind of initiation into the true believers. But Jeff still takes it upon himself to investigate and find his little brother so that with his own two eyes, he could see that his brother is fine.
On paper, this sounds like a really good concept. When Deadline.com announced that this was going to come to frutition on the CW, I was excited. It sounded like just the fresh/new concept that I was searching for. And upon watching the pilot, I was intrigued. But as the show went on, I just got confused. They intersperse the "real" show with the fictionalized one, showing certain clips and somehow it's supposed to make sense during the real one. This would have been fine, but I think the writers didn't really map everything out because the clips didn't start making sense until the most recent one I saw when Jeff and Skye went up to Moon Hill and discovered that Billy's car was being used even back then.
I don't know if I'm just slow or what, but I got lost in what the show had to do with the real show and it detracted from what could have been a great show. They had a stellar cast, gripping writing, and an interesting hook but I felt like there was something lacking. The show had all the ingredients there, it was just lacking a proper mixer.
WHAT WENT WRONG
Honestly, there's a whole list of reasons of what went wrong with this show, the foremost being that there was no structure to this show. They were trying to push this show so hard but it wasn't working because no one really sat down to think through the episodes. I know that when I write shows, I plan out at least three seasons in advance just so I know there's something to write towards to. I think with more planning and more time, this show could have been what the writers wanted them to be.
Another reason was scheduling. Seriously, networks have GOT to start thinking about what the other networks are doing. This show was originially set to air on Tuesdays at 9. There were at least four other, established shows airing at the same time across different networks. I've been saying it, and I'll say it again, there's no way people are going to leave something they know and like already for something completely new. Especially, if it's a brand new show that people have no clue about. Not to mention, that if people have DVR's, they can only record two shows at once with a select few who could do more. So if there already two shows coming on at 9, there's no way they can tune into this.
Because of that, CW was receiving low ratings scores. Which I don't see how it came as a surprise. Then they moved it to Fridays which is TV's version as the graveyard or dog house. (Or doghouse in a graveyard?) The ratings only declined from there, because it was such an abrupt change and people got confused. I thought it would have been better because then people would be able to see it because it doesn't conflict with other shows. But in the grand scheme of things, the show was already 3-5 episodes in by the time it moved to Fridays meaning people would have joined the show late. And this isn't really a show that you're able to join in late on.
It's not like a procedural where people are constantly feeding you information, constantly repeating themselves so that the viewer won't get confused. But with a show that hinges on confusion and we're going on this journey of discovery with the characters because they don't know either, it can get very difficult to join this show late. And forget about trying to catch up on the earlier episodes online. First off, no one has that kind of time. Especially with a new show. Not to mention, online, there are a select few places to watch the show but you're forced to sit through commericals. The whole point of watching online is to avoid commericals. So not only does somebody have to go on a scavenger hunt to find the show, they have to sit through the whole hour, real time, in order to watch it and keep up with the ones on TV. It's just not realistic.
Not to mention that OTHER show that deals with cult leaders and people killing because someone told them too. The Following. A lot of people either thought these shows were one and the same or they favored one more than the other because the Following had a stronger marketing campaign and people knew what they were getting. And because Kevin Bacon is literally a household name. Everybody knows him. Cult had an okay marketing campaign but they made it so flashy with Robert Knepper getting on and just saying "You're Next". People didn't know what to make of the show and we all know how judgy we can get about new TV shows based on the information we get or lack thereof.
Truly, you should watch this show for the sheer ambition of it. Yes, it has this perpetual sense of lacking some kind of X factor, but I believe that had this show stayed on air, it would have survived for at least four seasons. Ultimately, it's up to you. Watch it, don't watch it; it wouldn't be a complete waste of time but it wouldn't be the highlight of your evening either.
Well, hope you enjoyed this review. Happy Belated Mother's Day and hope you all have a wonderful Monday. Or at least try to!
Labels:
Alona Tal,
Cult,
CW Network,
Jessica Lucas,
Matthew Davis,
Robert Knepper,
TV Show
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