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alias_sqbrJust finished the one and only season of this police procedural about an immortal medical examiner and I quite liked it! It's like a B-grade cross between Bones and Highlander.
It's 90% generic murder of the week extruded police procedural product, complete with eccentric genius (the immortal Henry), tough-but-vulnerable female police officer Jo, her snarky and slightly dumb partner, and their hard ass but secretly caring Older African American Mentor/Police Chief. It's not especially progressive or diverse (ug, the treatment of mental illness), the frequent historical flashbacks are flaky, and the dialogue is often pretty cheesy. But it has a surprisingly well put together season arc, likeable characters, and is just really nice.
Henry is a genuinely kind and decent person. Unlike most other mystery solving geniuses on TV he's not mean or sharp, just stand-offish and eccentric. And unlike most TV immortals he's not an eternal 20-30 something, he feels like a grownup, someone who's not only 235(*) but has been 40 and 50 and 60. He has an adopted son, now in his 70s, and they have the most adorable relationship ever. Ioan Gruffudd does not entirely succeed in sounding Generically Classy English instead of Welsh and in some scenes feels like he should have a sparkling tooth glint to go with his overdramatic smug wink, but he's mostly endearing and kind of cute.
The show has a lot of emphasis on romantic love, including LOTS of flashbacks to Henry's very sweet relationship with his previous wife, and felt it was slowly heading towards Henry/Jo. But it mostly just emphasises Jo and Henry's friendship and work partnership, which is really supportive. Her husband died not long before the show starts, and there's some nice mirroring of their shared experiences with loss and trust. She doesn't get fleshed out as much as I would have preferred but I still liked her, and I liked that the actress ‎Alana de la Garza is in her late 30s. The character feels like a grownup too. The show is mostly about Henry's emotional arc (which includes some angst/saviouring about a few women/slaves/poor immigrants etc, sigh), but she gets to have an arc too.
I liked the supporting characters, even if they're mostly pretty shallow. Without giving spoilers, I enjoyed the closest thing the show has to a recurring villain, another much older immortal who finds Henry's concern with the deaths of mortals endearingly naive. He's not trying to destroy the world or anything, just amoral, and can be helpful when it suits him. There's a distinct lack of gloating serial killers whose first priority is being nasty.
The murders are pretty fluffy as murders go. Few gory details (aside from a lot of opened up bloodless corpses in the lab), not too tense, and there's not that sense that the world is an awful place full of awful people I get from some procedurals. Also Henry gets put in peril more than Jo, as much as an immortal can be in peril. He also gets topless a LOT, even beyond the fact that his resurrection involves waking up naked. There's a few salacious young woman victims but they're not shot too sexily. There is the inevitable sexy dominatrix, who strips like THREE TIMES for dubious reasons (including just after the police come into her office to introduce themselves WHO DOES THAT) but she got treated with a moderate amount of respect in the end. Also Henry ends up objectified nearly as much as her that episode, so.
The immortality doesn't make a LOT of sense(**), and never gets explained, but it's used consistently and I liked the way it's psychological effects are explored. Even though it got cancelled it ended on a pretty satisfying note, in fact they tied up so many loose ends I'm not sure a second season would have been as good. So, overall, an enjoyable show! At least if you like murder mysteries and immortals and some emotional cheese.
(*)They keep describing him as 200, but he died 200 years ago at the age of 35. Despite the actor being 41 and looking it. Probably a good thing the show got cancelled before he had a chance to start looking even older.
(**)When he dies his body vanishes, including his clothes but not his pocket watch, and he awakes naked in water nearby. Cam's theory is that the clothes get turned into energy to fuel the teleportation and healing, which makes as much sense as anything. No idea what's up with the watch.
It's 90% generic murder of the week extruded police procedural product, complete with eccentric genius (the immortal Henry), tough-but-vulnerable female police officer Jo, her snarky and slightly dumb partner, and their hard ass but secretly caring Older African American Mentor/Police Chief. It's not especially progressive or diverse (ug, the treatment of mental illness), the frequent historical flashbacks are flaky, and the dialogue is often pretty cheesy. But it has a surprisingly well put together season arc, likeable characters, and is just really nice.
Henry is a genuinely kind and decent person. Unlike most other mystery solving geniuses on TV he's not mean or sharp, just stand-offish and eccentric. And unlike most TV immortals he's not an eternal 20-30 something, he feels like a grownup, someone who's not only 235(*) but has been 40 and 50 and 60. He has an adopted son, now in his 70s, and they have the most adorable relationship ever. Ioan Gruffudd does not entirely succeed in sounding Generically Classy English instead of Welsh and in some scenes feels like he should have a sparkling tooth glint to go with his overdramatic smug wink, but he's mostly endearing and kind of cute.
The show has a lot of emphasis on romantic love, including LOTS of flashbacks to Henry's very sweet relationship with his previous wife, and felt it was slowly heading towards Henry/Jo. But it mostly just emphasises Jo and Henry's friendship and work partnership, which is really supportive. Her husband died not long before the show starts, and there's some nice mirroring of their shared experiences with loss and trust. She doesn't get fleshed out as much as I would have preferred but I still liked her, and I liked that the actress ‎Alana de la Garza is in her late 30s. The character feels like a grownup too. The show is mostly about Henry's emotional arc (which includes some angst/saviouring about a few women/slaves/poor immigrants etc, sigh), but she gets to have an arc too.
I liked the supporting characters, even if they're mostly pretty shallow. Without giving spoilers, I enjoyed the closest thing the show has to a recurring villain, another much older immortal who finds Henry's concern with the deaths of mortals endearingly naive. He's not trying to destroy the world or anything, just amoral, and can be helpful when it suits him. There's a distinct lack of gloating serial killers whose first priority is being nasty.
The murders are pretty fluffy as murders go. Few gory details (aside from a lot of opened up bloodless corpses in the lab), not too tense, and there's not that sense that the world is an awful place full of awful people I get from some procedurals. Also Henry gets put in peril more than Jo, as much as an immortal can be in peril. He also gets topless a LOT, even beyond the fact that his resurrection involves waking up naked. There's a few salacious young woman victims but they're not shot too sexily. There is the inevitable sexy dominatrix, who strips like THREE TIMES for dubious reasons (including just after the police come into her office to introduce themselves WHO DOES THAT) but she got treated with a moderate amount of respect in the end. Also Henry ends up objectified nearly as much as her that episode, so.
The immortality doesn't make a LOT of sense(**), and never gets explained, but it's used consistently and I liked the way it's psychological effects are explored. Even though it got cancelled it ended on a pretty satisfying note, in fact they tied up so many loose ends I'm not sure a second season would have been as good. So, overall, an enjoyable show! At least if you like murder mysteries and immortals and some emotional cheese.
(*)They keep describing him as 200, but he died 200 years ago at the age of 35. Despite the actor being 41 and looking it. Probably a good thing the show got cancelled before he had a chance to start looking even older.
(**)When he dies his body vanishes, including his clothes but not his pocket watch, and he awakes naked in water nearby. Cam's theory is that the clothes get turned into energy to fuel the teleportation and healing, which makes as much sense as anything. No idea what's up with the watch.
