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Forever.
Where Mr. Fantastic plays an immortal doctor who works at a forensic morgue in search for the cure to his predicament.
No, I don't know how that works either.
In the series, our protagonist Henry Morgan, played by Ioan Gruffudd, helps the FRI (forced romantic interest) Mrs Sharp Cheekbones (or Jo Martinez), played by Alana De La Garza, solve crime with the aid of his crazy observation skills, the power of endless assumptions and bottomless luck.
If you want to see crazy deduction skills and exiting detective work with a somewhat eccentric but fun protagonist and a deadly antagonist who’s the hero’s equal in every way... go watch Sherlock.
Forever is dull, boring, not well structured, not well paced, with sloppy detective work and a supernatural element that doesn’t bring anything new to the table.
Just pass it, never making eye contact.
And for more detailed reasons why, I will now venture into a “short” rant about the Pilot episode. Spoilers.
It opens with our main character narrating some pseudo philosophical nonsense on his way to the subway station. There, he flirts with a russian musician lady, and then blam, a trainwreck, in case we got bored by the minute of character establishment.
But surprise: he doesn’t die, because, gasp, he’s immortal.
Why did it have to be a train wreck though? They really do hammer in that immortality in the most dramatic of ways.
Then, as he lies among the rubble, boom, backstory, because we need to have all the backstory, right now, interrupting whatever suspense the train scene brought. But all right, I can live with this, backstory is good to show, even before we actually know who the protagonist is or what’s going on.
How does his immortality work anyway? He dies and then pops up naked in water? Why? What happens to his original body? What caused all this nonsense in the first place? Nope, not going to tell us that yet. Maybe never. I’m not too interested in knowing anyway.
Next we are shown a long scene of Henry whining about the woes of his condition. Living forever is such an awful thing after all, you can do anything, achieve everything, visit the world, learn all the languages, certainly, you will see loved ones die, and after a while being forever alive and young gets tedious, but he has been immortal for like what now? A few centuries? And he already suffers from the vampire syndrome of emo broodiness? Somehow I don't buy this.
When he’s finally done lamenting about being forever young, we are introduced to the female lead as she flees a one night stand.
Because a woman with commitment issues and a dead husband is the best kind of woman when it comes to an equally hung up over his dead wife male counterpart. Which still doesn't seem to make a difference when they flirt and tease and try to get into each other’s panties every spare moment they have together.
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| IMDb Photo by Patrick Harbron/ABC |
“If your game is death, go where the action is.” Henry justifies his working at a morgue.
Okay, let's pretend that makes sense.
My only question is, why does he think he can get closer to the cure by working at a morgue? And why is he looking for a “medical” remedy to an obviously mythically or magically caused condition in the first place? Why is death his thing? Isn’t his thing, rather, not dying?
But moving on. Henry works at the most lively morgue I've seen in a movie or series so far. It’s also equipped with all kinds of unnecessary machinery and monitoring tech to the point it looks so crowded there’s hardly any space for actual corpses. What are they monitoring anyway? Last time I checked corpses didn’t need monitors, they needed a scalpel and someone to cut them up with it.
And is that a spinning animation of brains? 
Why? I’m no expert, but I hardly see the need of all this monitoring equipment in a bloody morgue.
And, oh my god, it hasn’t been ten minutes, the exposition and establishment is still going on, and the main character has been narrating for the past decade. Nope, that trainwreck scene did not bring more live to this sequence.
Side note: Why is there a hunting knife among his dissection tools? Is that even allowed? And do all morgue workers cut up corpses with industrial cable cutting scissors? I’m serious here, I don't know, it just seemed rather odd.
But let’s stick to the main plot points, because if I comment on every single scene this would become longer than the actual script.
So as he’s working, bam, a phone call, someone, somehow knows his secret and is blackmailing him… Tensions rising.
Under the threat of exposure, and who knows what, Henry decides to do the reasonable thing and move on starting a life elsewhere.
However, after much unnecessary dramatizing from his companion, who’s old and grumpy and doesn't want to move, our protagonist is guilted into staying. Even if it makes no sense considering Henry tells us about the many occasions on which he had been experimented on because of his condition.
Is it me or are they introducing too many story lines too quickly? Will this be another case of the Secret Circle?
And again we are hit by “deep” dialogues about character issues that have not been established, nor developed. I kind of feel like I’ve walked in the middle of a movie, completely missing the first act.
Only this is the first act, so where is all this contemplative, overblown, dramatic dialogue coming from? I don’t even know these characters, I don't care how tired they are of constantly having to move, or what haunts them in the middle of the night. Unless it’s a bloodthirsty monster that wants to chew their faces off.
Seriously, it’s been 14 minutes and I am frustrated to tears. (And also rather bored.) Did anyone actually plan this? Or did they decided to shoehorn as much “stuff” as they could in the Pilot?
So a lot of bulshit later, our detective of a babe is looking into the trainwreck and the poisoned conductor. And then some more software, video footage, image enhancement bulshit later, surprise, surprise, she discovers that our good doctor was on the train.
Meanwhile, Henry attempts to solve the case by killing himself. I guess it makes sense as he wants to see how long it takes for the toxin used on the train conductor to affect him and thus determine when it was administered.
It kills him in less than a minute, which means the culprit was on the train as it crashed and is now probably bloody and dead.
Nah, just kidding, that would mean logic applies to the plot. He was on the train, but he’s okay despite the direct collision.
So now that the doctor was placed at the crime scene, he’s named a suspect. But that’s okay, he’s not taken off the case, nor put under arrest, even after a search warrant was issued for his house.
And yet, no search warrant for the man whose fingerprints were found on the victim. Depicting Police work adequately and consistently? Please, it’s not like we’re some kind of a detective tv show.
Oh wait.
Also why is the morgue doctor dragged around on police work and stake outs? He’s not an investigator, though his character could have just as easily been a detective seeing he does that work anyway. Or an MD. He has the educations and centuries of experience. Wouldn't finding an answer or a cure be easier in an actual hospital, with actual equipment?
Oh, and by the way, that creepy guy who kept calling him? Immortal too. And so the plot thickens as our main antagonist enters the scene.
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I have to say, I’m not impressed by the series. The actors were okay, I guess, the premise not too terrible, but the execution, pacing and overall the way the story was put together could use a rehashing. Not to forget lengthy dialogue or exposition so stuffed with fluff it often derails or makes no sense.
So a definite pass. The series were canceled after one season anyway, which doesn’t surprise me. Do have in mind I watched just the Pilot. The show might miraculously get better as it progresses, but from what I saw so far, I’m not willing to find out.
