Hey, last night lost amid the hoopla of the Golden Globes, playoff football and the return of 24 was the premiere of the newest television show based off of a comic book — Human Target!
If you missed it last night, FOX is going to run the pilot again on Tuesday after American Idol. Here's the show:
I recorded it on my DVR and watched it later in the evening after we wrapped up the Golden Globes liveblog over at Murmur, and I have to say that I really enjoyed the hell out of it. The pilot was a fun and action packed. Human Target seems to have set its sights on being the kind of breezy and funny action drama that falls along the lines of the immensely satisfying Burn Notice.
A lot of its appeal comes from the main cast, all of whom are appealing and all of whom I am big fans of: Mark Valley is the lead and I've been a huge fan of his since the criminally under-appreciated Keen Eddie, which was another in a long line of quirky and smart shows that FOX seems to love to develop and then immediately cancel. Valley plays Christopher Chance, the titular Human Target, a bodyguard for hire. His business associate/behind-the-scenes guy named Winston is played by Chi McBride who has never met a line of dialogue that he hasn't made better just by reading it. And finally there is the suddenly ubiquitous Jackie Earle Haley, and if you're surprised to find him playing the third lead in a FOX action series you are so not alone. But it's a good thing he is because he stole the first episode as Guerrero the mysterious, freelance street level hacker/scary, intimidating guy.
In retrospect I probably shouldn't have been surprised that I enjoyed this first episode as much as I did. The cast was charming, the story moved along briskly, and the action was fun (I especially enjoyed the fight inside the air duct). I'm really looking forward to the next episode. We will be having a Human Target liveblog once the show moves to its regular timeslot of Wednesday at 8pm EST/7pm CST so if you want to join in on the fun make sure to catch the replay this Tuesday or find it on-line.
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It definitely was a satisfying start so far. The trio clicked and I loved the set and action pieces to go along with it. Let’s see where they build from here.
It was horrendous and predictable. It was like watching Burn Notice, but without the fun and the lead actor totally devoid of all charisma. A better example, Remember all those 80’s TV shows you loved as a child, but now that you watched them, they haven’t aged well? Apparently, nobody informed the creators of this about this. Chi McBride and Jackie Earl Haley are awesome, which makes me sad that the former is on a show that isn’t very good.:(
Oh crap! I can’t believe I totally forgot about this. I will set the DVR now for Tuesday.
I enjoyed it, and I thought the three stars were great and great with each other. It was good enough to make me forget it bumped The Simpsons. Yes, I still watch and enjoy The Simpsons…
was good stuff
Really mediocre, routine stuff.
Definitely checking this out on Tuesday night!
Like it. Who knew the Keen Eddie can become an action star
I quite enjoyed it. It isn’t the greatest action show ever, but it had some great moments.
I did not expect Jackie Earle Haley to be a cast member in all of this. His name seemed to get lost by the way side for some reason. Good first episode and I hope it continues to be this good. We need something other then 24 to be an action hit for FOX.
It was great I liked it a lot better than the 24 rerun.
I agreed on all of those points that Conor made up there. Any show Chi McBride is in, I will watch.
yeah i also liked it
it was better than i thought.
@cyberauron – actor Mark Valley was in the Military(don’t know which branch) during the first Desert Storm, it was mentioned in an interview on G4’s Attack of the Show.
Cool! I was wondering if there would be a live blog of this show. It was good enough for me to tune in next time, but I’m not completely sold on the show. We shall see! Always nice to see the DC logo on the small screen.
Nice that the next episode is THIS Wednesday.
Crap…I’ll have to download this and check it out. I didn’t even know it existed.
Watched it tonight. It was pretty good, if a little predictable. I honestly think I like the comics version better, particularly the Milligan Vertigo stuff that was quite good, but I do see that it wouldn’t work well on TV. The comics version was all about Chance taking over the role of the intended target, using Mission: Impossible like disguises, and the Vertigo series from a few years back saw Chance becoming consumed by various identities he had taken on, losing sight of his own identity. Cool stuff, and while it’d be very cool if that could become a subplot on a TV show, I don’t think it works logistically.
First, it would mean handing over large chunks of your weekly show to guest stars, with your leading man becoming a supporting character on his own show. And then it’d be hard for the audience to really feel for Chance. Works in comics because you can maintain an inner monologue, etc.
That said, I thought this was a decent variation on the concept. A little light, a little predictable. I can see myself dropping it quickly, but I’ll try to give it a few more episodes.
If this gets a chance to settle into its groove, it could be a lot of fun. The Burn Notice comparison is spot on, and that’s a good thing.
Interested in checking out the comics. I liked the first issue sample on the DC website.
I just watched the first episode and liked it. Great actors. It was fun. Yeah, the air duct scene was the best.