I'll be the first to admit that I really really wanted to like this. I'm a huge Sarah Michelle Gellar fan from her Buffy days and I've been hoping for years that she would come back to TV after some underwhelming attempts at a movie career. And the pieces with Ringer all seem right: a double role playing twins, great supporting cast including Nestor Carbonell (Lost), Kristoffer Polaha (Life Unexpected) and Ioan Gruffud (Fantastic Four), and more modest expectations on the CW (it was originally developed for ratings giant CBS).Gellar plays twins Bridget, a former stripper and recovering addict who is on the run from being a witness in a murder case and Siobhan, a wealthy socialite in New York. The sisters reunite after 6 years of not being in touch and go on a boat trip in the Hamptons (with some of the worst green screen effects I've seen recently), during which Siobhan mysteriously disappears. Bridget, assuming Siobhan committed suicide, panics and decides to take over her sister's identity. She quickly discovers that Siobhan's life is not at all perfect--her marriage is a sham, she's having an affair with her best friend's husband (and is probably pregnant with his child)...and has a contract out on her life too. Oh, and Siobhan's not actually dead.
So how did this all come off? Well, pretty...boring. I know that there's a certain amount of set up and world building that needs to take place during a pilot and I guess that stuff was achieved but I still felt like nothing really happened. SMG was fine, as was the supporting cast, but there just wasn't a lot to latch onto. I've read interviews with SMG referring to the show as trying to be film noir but I didn't really get much of that either.
I don't know, perhaps this is the kind of show that takes a couple of episodes to establish itself, and I'm definitely going to give it a chance, but based on this premiere, I think I'm a little worried. The show seems to be taking itself awfully seriously and it doesn't necessarily fit in with the other CW offerings either (it's airing after 90210 for some reason). Let's hope that things get a bit more interesting in the upcoming weeks...
2 comments:
i didn't see it, and the CW doesn't do On Demand, so i'll try to catch it this week. i'm interested to see SMG's latest movie "Veronika Decides To Die," based on the book by paulo coelho.
i had the same lukewarm reaction to the premier. i will give it a few more episodes just because of the SMG factor, but seriously not just the boat scene but every scene where SMG played the twins talking to each other -- poorly done and you could SEE how hard they were trying (good example: the mirror scene). they did a better job with lindsey lohan in the parent trap and that was over a decade ago (admittedly with a larger budget for film than tv, but still)!!
i was willing to forgive it a little because it's a series premier and has so much to set up, but i got a sneak peek at the premiers for revenge (i'll try to review it soon) and once upon a team (ditto), and season premiers really can be WAY better. and both of those shows prove that. admittedly i had low expectations for both of those two shows, but seriously they tell a story and build a story so perfectly in those premiers and ringer completely failed to do so even half as successfully.
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