Television Series: Getting Hooked

The first few episodes of any television series that is truly serial in nature form the crucial stretch during which a viewer is hooked. I noted in my post about Hill Street Blues just how good its pilot episode is -- and all the early episodes follow suit, there's scarcely a weak minute. This week, I have been re-watching the early first season episodes of Northern Exposure, and they both set the tone of that series beautifully (verging toward the precious without quite landing there) and slip in casual references that will play out hugely later on (Maggie's boyfriends and their fates, the founding of the town by Cicely and Roslyn).

Let me assess some other first episodes I've watched recently, what with all the complete season DVD box sets being issued lately.

Epitafios -- From my notes: "I can vacillate on whether I'm going to commit to a series. I watched the first episode of HBO's Spanish language serial killer series Epitafios the other night, for example, and I'm not sure I'm going to go the distance. Plus: the Buenos Aires setting (there's a city that fascinates me!). Minus: it seemed sort of sub-David Fincher. So I don't know. It was a library borrow so I have no sunk investment." (I haven't watched another episode yet.)

Big Love -- From the same notes: "I'm also not sure whether I'm going to continue with Big Love (after viewing the first two episodes). It's well acted to be sure, but my problem is I just don't get it. My thinking was well captured by a poster at the Internet Movie Database:

One thing I don't get and I don't think is adequately explained is why would someone want more than one wife. The financial and other burdens are enormous, as the show illustrates. There are allusions to religious reasons, but that's about as far as it goes.What is the upside? What would compel someone to do this? What is the motivation? What is the motivation for these women to enter into such an arrangement? These things go largely unexplored. What sane person would say I would like to buy three houses all in a row, make them a compound, have three wives (and then find three women willing to do this), have a bus load of children, and then spend most of my life trying to cover this up??"

(I haven't continued with this yet either.)

All Creatures Great and Small -- A great first episode, introducing young vet James Herriot to the Yorkshire town that will become his home. Plenty of warmth, especially when James is offered the job he seeks. Unlike Dr. Fleischman in Northern Exposure, who resists Alaska to the end, James will flourish in his new surroundings. (I'm nearing the end of my viewing of the first season.)

Monarch of the Glen -- "I've launched another series with the first two episodes of Monarch of the Glen on DVD. So far it strikes me as very much Northern Exposure in the highlands, which is not at all bad; another obvious antecedent is All Creatures Great and Small, another show with wacky locals to spare. It remains to be seen if Monarch of the Glen, which seems determinedly light in tone, can ever pull off the trick of being actually moving, as those two series do. One less than hopeful sign is that Richard Briers's Hector, the family patriarch who occupies a roughly equivalent position in the show's scheme to Barry Corbin's Maurice in Northern Exposure and Robert Hardy's Siegfried Farnon in All Creatures, is far more purely cartoonish (and less engaging) than those two complex and oddly endearing gentlemen.

Still, only two episodes into a seven season series; plenty of time." (Unresumed as yet.)

The Sopranos -- I'll write about this separately later. Phenomenal first episode. (I'm also nearing the end of my viewing of the first season.)

It's easy to see that the shows whose early episodes don't "grab" me languish and fall behind in my viewing queue.