Last week saw the
premiere of Cult. The first episode, “You’re
Next” was directed by Jason Ensler and written by creator Rockne S. O’Bannon. I
was very much looking forward to this show and its unusual show within a show
format as I’m a big fan of all things “meta”. You may be wondering, then, why
it’s taken me a week to post this review. Unfortunately, the concept fell flat
for me – and given the rather dismal ratings on the first episode, for many
others as well. The show is very much a continuous and complicated puzzle, so
going forward, it’s difficult to imagine that people will be able to
comfortably just jump in to the story line. I’ve taken a week to reflect on
what worked and why overall I felt it didn’t work – I also re-watched the
episode several times.
The thing I did like about the show
was all the in jokes. Fake Empire is the production company for the show “Cult”
which airs on the CW network. It really is the show “Cult” within the show Cult, and Fake Empire is the production
company for it too. In fact, the somewhat annoying producer trying to get an
interview with the elusive creator of “Cult” says he worked for Gossip Girl, which was produced by...
you guessed it – Fake Empire.
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| Jessica Lucas and Matthew Davis |
The show was originally created for
the WB, back when it still existed, and had been on hold until a revised
version came forward in January 2012. In the interim, one of the CW’s biggest
shows with a very active fanbase has been Supernatural.
There were a couple of shout outs to that show as well. When Jeff (Matthew
Davis) and Skye (Jessica Lucas) go to Fan_dom_ain, there is an episode of Supernatural playing on one of the televisions.
The journal that Jeff finds in Nate’s (James Pizzinato) apartment looks very
much like John’s journal from Supernatural.
Supernatural is also about two
brothers and features a vintage muscle car. Fans of Supernatural are known to show up to watch filming just as the “Cult”
fans do.
As I said, I liked the concept of
the show within a show, but the execution of it had a number of problems.
Primarily, it felt very much as if the actors were acting like they were
acting. Any tension created by the show was lost for me because the performances
were so stilted. I’m a huge fan of Alona Tal who plays Marti Gerritsen, the
actor playing Kelly Collins, but I felt she was wasted here. Possibly going
forward we’ll get to see Tal demonstrate her talents as Gerritsen, and I might
be convinced to stick around for that. Robert Knepper, playing Roger Reeves the
actor playing Billy Grimm had slightly more to do – primarily looking directly
at the camera and thus the audience and looking very creepy. However, a lot of
the suspense was lost by the stiltedness of the portrayal.
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| Robert Knepper and Alona Tal |
The basic plot seemed a bit cliché and
not that difficult to figure out. In fact, it seemed a bit far-fetched for Skye
and Jeff to take so long to see the parallels between what was happening on the
show and what was happening in “real” life. And was anyone surprised when Detective
Sakelik (Aisha Hinds) turned out to be a cult member? I will say that Hinds was
another member of the cast that had me excited about the show, and she did turn
in a very strong performance.
A big part of what didn’t work for
me was the entire portrayal of fandom. It felt very much like this was the
industry’s take on fandom – taken to an extreme, of course. Nonetheless, it
seems like “Cult” has only been on for 14 episodes – if Nate’s DVR is to be
trusted – and yet it has this huge fanbase and extensive Internet presence and
network. Fans are also portrayed as obsessed and generally without a life –
again, clichéd. Perhaps most importantly, if you portray fans in such a
negative light, what are the chances of garnering a strong fanbase yourself?
One thing that did resonate for me, is when Jeff asks Skye in the fan cafe what
they are doing. Skye responds that they are “Watching, looking for clues,
connections.” That for me was a more accurate description of what a fan does.
They watch the show and look for clues, but clues that provide a connection
with their own life. Fans also form a fanbase by finding that common ground or
connection between fans themselves. That kind of bond is a much healthier and
more positive connection than the destructive one portrayed here.
Admittedly, my thoughts are based on
only the first episode. A lot of balls were thrown in the air to begin the
series, so it may be unfair not to see where those balls land before making any
final decisions. What did you think of the first episode of Cult? Will you be watching tonight? Let
me know in the comments below.
Well, I'll be watching tonight, but I was pretty unimpressed by the pilot. I rolled my eyes and even laughed inappropriately once or twice, at the lame dialogue (not just in the show-within, but the show itself; the scene where Skye is explaining to producer-guy about fan websites being particularly lame). They'd have been better not to throw so many balls in the air right off. and they'd have been even more better not to throw so many obvious ones. ANOTHER missing family member show? This time with TWO missing family members? ANOTHER crypto-cultist, who just happens to be the lead investigator? MORE characters who just can't spit it out directly and tell you things straight, instead of dropping obtuse hints, hiding DVDs and then not expecting folk ot play yhem, etc? And, of course, MORE dumb characters doing dumb things? Spare me. Episode two needs to be a home run, to make up for this sacrifice play....
ReplyDelete"And was anyone surprised when Detective Sakelik (Aisha Hinds) turned out to be a cult member?"
ReplyDeleteYes, because it didn't make sense. If the detective was in on it, why would she suspect the brother of being in on it?
And, Lisa, did you try to look into anything on the show that might be a clue? Since the show put such emphasis on studying the episode for clues, I'm surprised that nothing of the sort came up in your review. For example, the muscle car is the exact same make and has the exact same license plate as the muscle car from the cult movie, "Duel". I don't know what the connection might be there, but it certainly seemed intentional.
Hmmm.. Yeah?
ReplyDeleteWe will see nxt!
Yes - I did notice that and many other echoes. Such as the cult member killing himself in almost exactly the same way as Miriam... I was quite pressed for time to get this posted, so I didn't do a detailed analysis of the episode - I missed a lot! Or at least left it out of the review. I think what will happen is that she is going to frame Jeff for the murder of the guy they found in the dumpster. If and when anything happens to Nate, she's also got her partner thinking that Jeff is responsible there too. I was actually tipped off to her because her suspicions of Jeff really didn't make any sense - other than harboring a grudge over the 5 cops that got sent to prison because he lied in his Post article.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't say - did you like it? Will you keep watching?
I have to agree, I wasn't impressed with the dialogue either. The only thing keeping me tuning in is that I really, really wanted to like this show...
ReplyDeleteNice extended metaphor there btw!
I did enjoy it. It wasn't my favorite pilot of the season, but it wasn't far down the list. I love a good mystery and meta elements, so this really hit the spot for me. My only real complaint was the seeming lack of motivation or plan behind the "real world" cult's activities, though I'm confident that'll eventually come around.
ReplyDeleteI definitely intend to keep watching, but my Tuesdays are so packed as is, that I probably won't be watching live very regularly.
I haven't seen Duel in at least ten years, but it's general premise is about A guy named Mann who inadvertently ticks off a truck driver by passing him a couple of times. The movie plays out across the American landscape as Mann travels. -And no matter what Mann does, the Truck and it's driver follows him... (it's about being stalked until a final confrontation is reached)...But when I think about the words Duel and and Cult I see the idea of an opposition to being the same., which sounds kind of intriguing!
ReplyDeleteI didn't see the Cult Pilot yet, but stopped by for Lisa's review. I'll probably will watch it towards the end of the week. I'll come back if I think I made any connections.
(And Thanks Lisa for the review!)
I absolutely loved it
ReplyDeleteOf course it didn't make sense, lol! Not much in this show did.
ReplyDeleteI disagree. Apart from the motivation of the cult followers and the motivation of the cop to act like she suspects the reporter, everything made perfect sense.
ReplyDeleteTuesdays are a busy night! I had to drop one show that I was watching... I thought this week's episode made a bit more sense. I'm intrigued enough to keep going anyway! (review to follow...)
ReplyDeleteSkye's obsession with the fan sites was unmotivated (though it was given some motivation in episode two, though motivation that created its own logic problems--if ten years ago you were disappearing folk looking into your cult, why would you then create a TV show about it? isn't that just ASKING for scrutiny?)--just seemed kind of out of left field; establishing our hero reporter as someone who lost one job for lying and who then uses an easily exposed lie (really, does he not understand how the electronic age works?) to try to get onto the set doesn't exactly make him a plausible or sympathetic hero; a TV show creator/writer who nobody ever sees or has contact with is a highly implausible plot contrivance to create mystery (how'd he pitch the show? how'd he get financing?); why would you carefully conceal a DVD where only your brother would find it (or so said brother asserts, though why he thinks so is unclear, given that his brother knows he thinks his obsession is paranoia), without maybe putting a sticky-note on it saying, "don't put this in your computer"?; and if you've just been told that in the show (which has been closely mimicked in real life two or three times by this point) putting the equivalent DVD in your computer gives you an identify-theft virus, why in God's name would you put it in your computer? Ever heard of internet cafes, or, even, your brother's DVD player, right there in the room with you?
ReplyDeleteI expected to like this show--it's the kind of thing that, in theory, appeals to me--but I had a hard time with all of these elements.
Skye's obsession was motivated. Granted, not very clearly, but we were told that she did research for the show, and it makes sense that in her research for the show she would stumble across the "scary" fan sites, which are going to be intriguing to a certain character of person. So the show is likely trying to show that Skye is of that sort of character. (Can't say anything in regards to your parenthetical since I haven't seen episode 2 yet.)
ReplyDeleteI don't think he was using an easily exposed lie. I think he only just got fired in the beginning of the first episode. So he still considered himself a reporter for that journal/magazine/whatever it was, even though the magazine no longer did. If you had been a reporter for years and had been a reporter just a few hours before someone asked you what your job was, and you were doing reporter work at the time you were asked, wouldn't you say you were a reporter? That just makes sense.
The creator isn't a problem because the show (at least in the first episode) never said that nobody has ever seen the guy. Just that he hasn't show himself to the rest of the staff since the show stared. He could be an invention of the real creators of the show to drum up more mystery and intrigue around the show. Regardless of whether he was invented by the actual creators of the show for publicity or he suddenly decided to go into hiding, so to speak, once his show got picked up to series, either one works out without a whole lot of suspension of disbelief.
The brother wanted the reporter to put the disk into his computer originally because he was afraid that something bad was going to happen to him, and it would be the only way for the reporter to find him. He certainly didn't give the reporter the notebook or any instructions regarding the disk before he disappeared. And on the reporter's side of things, just because the disk in the show does one thing doesn't mean that it does the same thing in "real life". (In fact, we know it doesn't do exactly the same thing since the disk in the in-show show didn't require that password.) However, I do agree that it would have been smarter to put the DVD in his brother's computer (and I thought he had at first) than in his own, but him putting it in his own computer isn't something that didn't make sense. It's just something that wasn't very smart.
Just one more comment, re: your point two above. When we first meet the reporter at the beginning, it's clear he's now working on some podunk local mag/paper after having been fired from whatever prestigious paper it was he'd been at--Washington Post, or whatever. I'm 95% sure the fact that he's no longer with that paper comes up in their initial dialogue, but it's 100% clear that he works for whatever paper/mag was publishing that article they were discussing. So representing himself as still with the prestigious paper--giving them his old card with their email on it (!) is at best an extremely foolish oversight. Given that a) the episode later establishes his willingness to lie to get what he wants and b) that representing himself as working for that paper rather than the local podunk mag would more likely get him access to the set, I read that as pretty clearly being him lying, deliberately using his former job to get in to the set. It's an easily exposed lie because he gave them a dead e-mail contact number on the card; any reporter with a lick of sense would know that the odds would be enormously high that they'd use that e-mail to send him promotional material, so that was a pretty big risk. (Admittedly, undeliverable e-mail doesn't necessarily immediately bounce, but still....)
ReplyDeleteThe rest, I can see your points, more or less, in each case (sometimes more, sometimes less!), and maybe I'm just judging too harshly. I guess we'll see, if the show survives (given its ratings, that seems far from a sure thing), whether these things clarify.