An absolute waste of money

A Masterpiece!

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Sci-Fi television shows have a notorious ability to ware very quickly on the patience of networks and producers. Indeed,if you were tick off a list of Sci-Fi shows that "made it" (i.e. lasted longer than a couple of seasons), you'd have barely enough to count on one hand("Star Trek","X-Files","The Incredible Hulk" and "Quantum Leap" come immediately to mind),and it could be argued that the TRULY successful shows--try "Star Trek:TNG", "ST:DSN", "ST:V", "Xena:Warrior Princess", "Battlestar Galactica(Sci-Fi channel's,not ABC's legendary offering)" and "Babylon 5"--were so because they were syndicated rather than network produced,allowing these shows to find their followings at their own pace,rather than the tight schedules of network TV.Herein lies the great downfall of this otherwise quite intriguing show.A team of government experts are dispatched to investigate an unexplainable phenomenon that occurred to a shipping vessel,and the results found are even more bizarre and otherworldly. A VERY solid cast--CArla Gugino,Brent Spiner,Charles S.Dutton,Peter Dinklage and Brian VAn Holt--comprise the team,and the story lines,while somewhat murky and maybe bearing a little TOO much resemblance to stuff like "X-Files" or "Kolchak",still made for reasonably compelling entertainment. But CBS accursed this show from the start,stuffing into Friday nights,giving it about two months if that,then dropping and re-running the show sporadically over the rest of the 2005-06 season. Is it any wonder it made it to a WHOLE compliment of shows! Here's hoping that Sci-Fi network can bring back the re-runs and maybe,just MAYBE produce this show anew.

So what gives with the program administrators? Another great piece of speculative writing slashed off the network. maybe it's too close to the mark, what with home security snatching people of the sidewalk and interrogating them with no warrant or formal documentation. Scary. Also there's no fuzzy nice bits, no easygoing nice guys. It's tough and rugged with no prospects of solutions or "humanity will find a way out" scenarios. Yeah - what do you do if aliens decide to take the world and their technology is so far advanced it looks like magic? We'd be pretty well 'stuffed'. Edgy, uncomfortable, questioning. All the things the programmers think we can't take or understand. How wrong can they be?

For what I intend to do, this series merits a complete and total ten. I watched this series one hundred percent because Brent Spiner (Dr. Nigel Fenway) is in it. That's all. From a member of his faithful little army, IT'S WORTH IT. Good god, is that man stunning. You have to wonder what CBS was thinking when they decided to can this series without even bothering to tell us. When is Hollywood going to learn that thirtysomething women are really, really, really into older men? How many Lara Flynn Boyles and Callista Flockharts have to date how many Jack Nicholsons and Harrison Fords before these morons figure out that what younger women want is that touch of gray with gorgeous eyes and a perfect backside? I could seriously go on forever about it, and I might.It doesn't hurt that the series is important and engaging. If you're in a mind to question recent "national security" efforts, the story here will definitely give you pause. Everything about the story will have you asking "What if that's really why they're doing this?" You'll spend a few days in a dream seeing aliens everywhere. It's really a great ride, and if you're into scifi at all, you'll love it.But if you're one of my grrlz (and if you are, you know who you are) you owe it to yourself to catch the series. Spiner's absolutely mindblowing. Buy wine and chocolates first.

...which is to say, if this somewhat promising series hadn't had the plug pulled on it before even a single season had aired.My brother turned me on to this one courtesy of the spiffy 4DVD set from Paramount/CBS, and his recommendation was certainly a point in its favor, but I can't say that "Threshold" will be a repeat viewing favorite. The premiere episode was well done, very promising in a high-tech "Amazing Stories" sort of way, but as the series unfolded, I found myself increasingly frustrated with the limitations and demands of serial commercial presentation. This could well be a reflection of the weaknesses of creativity by committee, or more simply the fault of the premise itself.This is not to imply that the series was bad; far from it. The concept was reasonably solid, if somewhat derivative (but what isn't these days?): alien invasion via genetic manipulation, complicated by spreading the "infection" via multiple vectors, all of this told primarily from the viewpoint of a top-secret think tank assembled to deal with just such a contingency. Take a little "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," mix in elements of "The Invaders," John Carpenter's "The Thing," and "The X-Files," season with a generous helping of decent actors and quality production values, and you have "Threshold." Unfortunately, it didn't quite work. The cancellation of the series was certainly less of a surprise than that of, say, "Firefly," another (much better) short-lived sci-fi series.I think the problem was that the creators of "Threshold" couldn't decide if their show was to be character-driven or idea-driven, and as a result, it wavered between both to the detriment of both. The leads are reasonably engaging actors, but the writing fails to establish them as anything much beyond typical TV stereotypes, with the possible exception of Peter "The Station Agent" Dinklage and esteemed stage and screen character actor, Charles S. Dutton. Carla "Spin City" Gugino is somewhat unbelievable as the hyper-intelligent theorizer, although she does her best with what she's given by the scriptwriters. Brent "Star Trek" Spiner reprises his Data persona sans funky make-up, Rob "Felicity" Benedict tackles the computer geek role, and Brian "Black Hawk Down" Van Holt provides the black ops muscle. Unfortunately, they all add up to less than the sum of their parts.The writers are careful to not reveal too much too quickly, but also fail to reveal enough of consistent substance. And they cheat. Case in point is the premiere-ending image of a city full of traffic arrayed in the shape of the signature alien fractal. It runs completely counter to the premise of alien infection; it simply hasn't spread that far yet. One of the featurettes on the DVD even admits this.I watched all thirteen episodes over the course of about three days, including extras. I don't feel that my time was wasted, but I also know that I won't be returning to the show anytime soon, nor am I overly heartbroken that it died at the relentless imperative of Nielsen. "Threshold" just wasn't as smart as it wanted to be.