Have we seen this before? Oh goodness, do any original stories exist? Is this one of the basic plots? I’ll leave those as rhetorical for now, but like a good plot device rather than run of the mill one, they might pop up again. Look, what is a story without coincidence? Even I can answer that one: but let me think about it a moment, uhhhh, nothing?
Now, in a good story you don’t notice the coincidence. So how ‘bout this: how ‘bout you build a story about coincidence that’s not really coincidence? What better way to make the coincidence look natural so you don’t notice it? Come right out and say that’s what the story is about. Hmmm, maybe that's obvious (read the last paragraph).
We got a story about numbers. About how the entire scope of the universe is ruled by numbers, by ratios. Oh, boy, I love numbers. I had 3 epiphanies reading Greene’s book. I completely forget one. I vaguely remember one. And the third one was/is that the entire universe is number theory. A corollary of 1+1=2. Matter, energy (we know are the same thing, thank you very much Albert), space, time, space-time (matter tells space how to bend, space tells matter how to move, no matter who said it), everything are all numbers. And I don’t say “just numbers.” Numbers is all there is, so there’s nothing “just” about them, nothing “more” to compare them down from.
Where have we seen this? Oh, this one is too easy: Numb3rs (TV really is educational)! But Numb3rs wasn’t about how everything is connected. It was about how mathematics can solve crimes. So where else have numbers been important? Didn’t numbers play a key coincidental role in Lost? Why were all those numbers so important in Lost? Did we ever find out? No, but I’ll tell you why—so we could have a story!
But I’m not talking about only the story. Let’s look at Jack, errrr, Kiefer, errr Martin Bohm. Relevant that he has the name of someone else? Martin is a twitchy guy who often uses a cell phone. He’s a single dad, loves his kid, misses his wife, doesn’t relate well with people, has a temper, takes a punch pretty well, screws up his face a bit, and attacks problems with the first solution that comes to mind because it never occurs to him that his first solution might not be the best one. Sound familiar?
How can Kiefer act in any plot that doesn’t have a gimmick? 24 had the clock (thank the creators of this one that we don’t have to blog about 24 hours a year!), and that though ultimately unrealistic (but what drama in TV is realistic) and quite quickly ignorable (who cares that each episode takes just one hour out of the day?) it did move the action right along. Now we have the kid who doesn’t talk or touch but who drops clues for Martin to try to figure out if they are clues and if they are what they mean. Nice little run of the mill detective story simply set in a different milieu, kinda like House. But one that no one’s likely ever to figure out without a lot of help from the writers. But it seems like it’ll be a bit fun to see how all these lives are tied together, hmmm, kinda like Lost!
How can Kiefer act in any plot that doesn’t have a gimmick? 24 had the clock (thank the creators of this one that we don’t have to blog about 24 hours a year!), and that though ultimately unrealistic (but what drama in TV is realistic) and quite quickly ignorable (who cares that each episode takes just one hour out of the day?) it did move the action right along. Now we have the kid who doesn’t talk or touch but who drops clues for Martin to try to figure out if they are clues and if they are what they mean. Nice little run of the mill detective story simply set in a different milieu, kinda like House. But one that no one’s likely ever to figure out without a lot of help from the writers. But it seems like it’ll be a bit fun to see how all these lives are tied together, hmmm, kinda like Lost!
Now about these numbers in at least tonight’s story. I accept the plot device of the message in abottle cell phone that travels around the world making connections even though its link to Jake’s ability to find connections between people via numbers is thin (at best!). But all those 3:18 coincidences? I admit that I think I see one time more frequently than any other when I look at a digital clock. But for 3:18 to be the bus, the day, the time (and drat, I think I’m forgetting some more)—that’s gregarious, errrr, egregious, errr, gratuitous. And what does the coincidence of the same number between different people have to do with Jake’s ability to understand the ratios that rule the universe? Oh, and if Jake can’t/doesn’t talk, why does he provide the opening narration? And just to get all these out of the way in one shot and move on, when Martin tracks down the Teller Institute online that might help him understand Jake, he’s not in the guys house more than 30s before the guy tells him in detail what Jake sees. But, hey, a story doesn’t exist without coincidences, so just suspend your disbelief and enjoy the ride! Didn’t you learn to do that from 24?
Nice to see Kiefer show some range here. Wow, he’s a luggage handler at JFK. I don’t recall any TV character being a luggage handler. Seeing him in the airport I kept expecting a hostage crisis to erupt. And I’m expecting him to handle every situation with aplomb. He doesn’t though, and that’ll take some getting used to. But I’m guessing it won’t last.
Hmmm, that phone that went ‘round the world and wound up getting its image content up on the big screen—how come the racy footage didn’t get up there? Why show the phone taking video of the suggestive interaction without having it displayed for all to see, like all the “good” stuff? And, yeah, I’m the 17%, but how easy is it to use a phone you come by accidentally? Don’t they have at least rudimentary security?
