Let's see if you've heard this before. A child has the chance to talk to the father that they lost to tragedy when they were younger via an old radio they kept out of sentiment. Despite being hesitant, the two form a bond across time, and the child ends up warning their father about the event that leads to their death, altering everything the child knows. Sure, the child now has memories of life with the father, but there's so much lost in the wake of their actions. The child now has lost their mother to a serial killer, while their father died at some point later after the mother was lost and their lover doesn't recognize them. Now the child, who is a detective, finds themselves burning with a passion to stop the killer who took their mother with the help of their father they communicate with in the past. If it does sound familiar, you've probably seen the movie Frequency from 1999 starring Jim Caviezal and Dennis Quaid. If it doesn't sound familiar and you plan on checking out the new CW series Frequency, by the time you finish the pilot then this synopsis will sum up just about everything you saw. While there's not much new about the story introduced in Frequency, I wouldn't say that it has nothing to offer. In fact, out of the pilots that I have seen for the upcoming season Frequency is certainly one of the strongest.
There are a lot of things the pilot does right when it's introducing us into this world, and I was so enthralled in it, I rarely noticed the things that it didn't do so well. The pilot really does a solid job of keeping the pace consistent and the plot engaging that the viewer really doesn't want it to end. In fact, the only thing that really took me out of it as I was watching was when the show attempted to make the actress who plays Peyton List's mother look older with makeup. The Actress playing Julia Sullivan, Devin Kelley, was actually born the same year as List and it couldn't be more obvious the two are the same age. The scenes in the present with her in the old age makeup don't do a good enough job of convincing me that this woman is actually her mother. That gripe aside, there is still so much to love about the pilot despite the fact that it shares so much in common with the film.
For me, two of the biggest sells of the pilot are that the show doesn't even attempt to bog itself down with an over explanation of how the radio makes it possible that the main character Raimy (Played by List) is able to communicate with her father and that it doesn't once feature a moment where the main character is warned how detrimental it would be to play with time. We get a straight forward visual of what happens ti the radio and then the pilot simply just lets the suspension of belief just take over. In my eyes this makes
Frequency a bit more digestible, because sometimes shows lose themselves when they worry too much on trying to please everyone by being too smart and then it either feels like it's assuming it's audience is either too dumb so they have to over explain, or that it's so complicated only few people will understand. I also appreciate how the show simply just avoids the oft-used and mostly annoying bits of dialogue where the main character is warned how their actions could change the past and alter the future. In my mind, that's always what the audience wants anyhow to see exactly how these actions change things across time, because it could really be a good kickstart for some good storytelling, so the fact the the show just goes for it, much like it's movie predecessor is all the more welcome. Most times those bits of dialogue are just filler because we know what the character will do anyway.
Now, it's time for a confession. I have never seen the film version of
Frequency, so I went into the pilot with just a general knowledge of what the basis of the film was about. When I first heard about the pilot, I was firmly in the camp of "I don't get it, how does this even make a good show". I've only followed the show loosely and mostly out of curiousity of how do they take a film with this plot and sustain it across a full season, or even multiple seasons? Apparently, there is at least a three year plan for the show, and after watching the pilot and reading up on the film, I'm actually leaning towards the idea that a tv show is the best way to explore a premise like the one introduced here. The weaving of the plots across time and the effects that can have seems to be ripe with story telling potential. I'm really starting to feel that
Frequency may just be my most anticipated new show simply because of it's potential.
One of the biggest differences between the film and the show, is that show has decided to explore a father-daughter relationship versus the father son relationship from the film. Peyton List(The Tomorrow People) plays Raimy, a detective who seems to have spent her life distancing herself from her father's memory. Her father Frank, played by Riley Smith, was also a cop who died in 1996 after he was believed to have gone dirty on an undercover job, or so we and Raimy have been told. If you have seen the film you'd know that in it the father was a firefighter, while the son was a cop. I think it's just the tiny bit of change the show needed to differentiate itself from the film, because the pilot is basically just a rehash of half of the film sprinkled with a few new plot points that stem from Frank being a cop. That's why I don't consider some of what I've a said a spoiler because it's ripped right from a film that came out over 15 years ago. Also a key component of the pilot is the subplot about the aforementioned nightingale killer, which is also a story borrowed from the film. If you're familiar with the film or seen any extended promos for the show, then before you read this preview, you probably already knew why the nightingale killer is an important component of the plot in the show. When I think about how nightingale is handled in the pilot, it really help drive home how tightly executed this pilot is. Almost every plot point and every scene in the pilot has a purpose and that's good because the pilot only has about 40 minutes to get us interested in what it's selling and they decide to use every minute of it to not only build a mystery, but to get us to root for these characters.
I can't touch on characters without talking about the performances. I was never really a big fan of Peyton List's portrayal of Cara on
The Tomorrow People and I guess I enjoyed her as Lil' Snart on
The Flash but there's something about her acting here that I'm really in love with. Unlike most CW shows, I actually buy the fact that her character is a detective and I really feel the gravitas that she brings to her emotional scenes. From the opening scene, where she's all covered in mud confessing to her fiance something that could really make her seem crazy, I believe it.I can't wait to see how she got to this point so the show has all my attention. There's never really a moment where I think she's not to up to the challenge of leading a show, and that's really important because it made me feel and root for her to get what she wanted even if it comes at a cost.
Which it does. The other actor doing heavy lifting this episode is Riley Smith as Frank Sullivan. Smith does a great job getting us feeling for Frank as well and providing a different and more subtle emotional performance. Watching him go from denial and confusion about the fact that this is his daughter on the other end of this radio in a different time period to acceptance and then denial again when he learns of his fate is captivating. You really get the sense that by of the end of the episode that these characters realize there's no going back from what they done, but that they also aren't going just sit back and let things be and that is in a large part due to the portrayal.
Sure, you could skip out on the pilot, because it is almost exactly like the movie that came before it, but I think you'd be unwise to do so. I didn't go into to
Frequency expecting to like it, but now I'm eagerly anticipating what's next. Not once do I feel I was stuck on the semantics or concerned with what type of box the show fit into. I was more so just fascinated with these characters. The characters in
Frequency feel more defined and dimensional in the these 40 minutes than some characters are in 40 episodes and that's what is worth seeing. The concept itself is still as interesting as it was when it was made before and I really think the TV medium is the best place for it to be explored. There's more time for the journey and less of a rush to get to the happy ending. The real shame here is that
Frequency really feels like the dark horse of the CW newbies with only a moderately successful film to really fuel it's success. It hasn't had the same type of promotion as
No Tomorrow and it didn't have the built in buzz of
Riverdale, but it really feels like it's the most on brand for what the CW has become while also playing like a show that really could be a moderate success on a big four network. Hopefully viewers are willing to give it a chance out of curiosity of how the concept translates from the big screen to the small one.
Here's my final quick take on the Frequency pilot- It Hits all the right notes. B+
Frequency was created by former Supernatural writer/producer/co-showrunner Jeremy Carver, and stars Peyton List, Riley Smith and Mekhi Phifer and the pilot airs Wednesday October 5th 2016 at 8pm CT following the season premiere of Arrow. Sound off Below and let us know if you plan on watching! If you do check it out, don't forget to come back here and let us know your thoughts!
About the Author - Winston Mize
I always have the most trouble coming up with a blurb to describe me. Which is really weird for someone who wants to make a career out of writing. If you think I'm awkward online, it's just because you haven't met me in person. I'd like to think I have other interests outside of TV, and maybe I do, but TV is the one that gets me most excited. I live a pretty boring life so TV's the way I get my fix, and I'd love to chat about it with you. I'm also always looking to guest or start my own podcast, so if you've got the opportunity, I'm in there like swimwear. You can check me out with different previews of various shows or read my reviews of iZombie, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Legends Of Tomorrow here on the site. If you're a fan on One Tree Hill you can check out my podcast about as well by checking out our twitter page @OnlyOthPod.
