Smith
I watched the new CBS show “Smith” last night and I make no apologies about the fact that I watched it for two reasons.
- I love me a caper
- I really like me some Jonny Lee Miller
I’ll watch this show. This brings me up to a total of five shows I can’t miss.
And now the cut!
Ray Liotta has no lips! And little beady eyes! Ew? I really don’t want to spend too much time looking at him, especially if he’s just going to sit around looking tightlipped (in a no-lip way) and brooding.
As far as Hope/Bobby, I like Hope (Virginia Madsen) way more than I like Bobby. She’s at least got an interesting backstory. And lips.
The Jeff (Simon Baker)/Tom (Jonny Lee Miller) dynamic really is good. There’s clearly some history there and I hope the show’s on long enough to explore it. Their fight was one of the best and most real I’ve seen on television in a while. Jeff grabbing Tom’s nose was just brilliant. You know from that that they don’t really want to hurt each other too badly (considering we watched Jeff cheerfully shoot two people) but they need to beat the hell out of each other anyhow.
I was also impressed that a character on television was actually shown smoking. That’s almost unheard of on an American show. I suppose that’s how we know he’s really bad.
I don’t like Amy Smart’s character, Annie. Jonny Lee Miller’s part was underwritten but hers was virtually nonexistant. She’s supposed to be brilliant and some sort of master of disguise but you get none of that from the first episode. She just comes across as a bitch and a bit of a bimbo.
Joe (Franky G) was also underwritten, although I’ve read a few “spoilers” (just the synopsis of a future episode) that will go into his character more. Apparently they plan to not just focus on Bobby and the capers, but each episode will give you a little more of each character’s history and situations.
People have been complaining about the non-linear storytelling (the episode starts with the heist, goes back to three weeks before and goes forward through the planning, execution, and outcome). Someone on a message board said they didn’t get it because “one minute it’s day, the next it’s night”. I don’t understand the complaint. Time is compressed on television shows.
Some of it was entirely predictable. You knew right away in the opening scene that as soon as one of the masked robbers was saying ‘just calm down; no one needs to get hurt’ someone was going to die.
Then you know as soon as you find out that Shawn’s a rookie and has a wife and a kid that he’s the one that dies. Anyone who has ever seen a war movie knows that. Hey, anyone who’s seen an episode of Star Trek knows that. “Here’s your red shirt. Sorry”.
I can totally do without the Bobby-at-home nonsense, though. It does nothing for the story and he’s so wooden that it doesn’t even give you insight on the character.
The characters are not nice. They’re not cute and cuddly bad guys. This ain’t “Oceans 11″ or “The Hot Rock”. These are career criminals. This show is probably going to make some people uncomfortable because they won’t like rooting for the bad guy and they won’t like being disappointed when they’re caught or killed. If the writers can pull it off so that you do like the bad guys and you do feel bad when they fall, that’ll be great. It’s not an easy thing to do.
Tags: Television
