A friend of mine recently recommended E-Ring as a show worthy of watching. I told him that I didn’t want to get addicted to any more shows, as our MCE system records more than we can watch anyway (we don’t watch that much TV).
Well, in any case, a few day ago Deb and I were up and unable to sleep, so we had a Law and Order marathon on and at midnight or so an episode of E-Ring came on. Since it had just come up earlier that day, I decided to take a look.
Overall, I think the show has some potential, but I’ve got to say that some of the writing and clips used during the show really ruined it for me.
The premise of the show that I watched was that a spy working for America in China had been exposed, and America had to go get her. The plan called for her to be extracted within 6 hours of when she asked for help. So far so good.
The spy then proceeds to do a pretty good job of changing her appearance to look like a guy so that she can safely drive to the beach where the SEAL team is going to pick her up. Peachy.
Now things start to go downhill. She is a spy, and is running for her life. *Everyone* has pictures of her, there are checkpoints everywhere, agents chasing her, etc. So why is it that in just about every scene, she is using her cell phone to talk to someone? Um, if you’re wanted that badly, perhaps you should turn off the radio transmitter that’s giving away your position, don’t you thinK? Okay, I can deal with this – if I was under that kind of stress, well, I’d do stupid things too (heck, I do stupid things on a daily basis, and I don’t have the cops chasing me).
The slide downhill just continues to accelerate. From the Pentagon General’s virtually schizophrenic personality (essentially – "you should never do that again! You broke the rules! Now let’s try out your suggestion that broke the rules! YEAH!") to the submarine shots that really got my back up.
See if you can explain the logic to me: There is a sub on a top secret mission off the coast of China working with a SEAL team – very convenient. Cut to a shot of the sub – on the surface? Is this 1939? Then later on, when the SEAL team is given approval to go rescue the spy, they show the sub in an action shot underwater – turning and openening a torpedo tube! Maybe they’re going to make the SEAL’s trip a rapid one. A few seconds later you see the SEAL team exiting a hatch on top of the sub – I guess they didn’t want a ride on a torpedo – chickens. At this point, the sub is 1 mile from the coast of China, with a SEAL team in transit underwater to pick up the spy.
Now things get really "interesting" – little Ms. Spy has been on the beach, in the same location for three hours blinking a red flashlight into the water to signal the SEAL’s that aren’t there yet. Good thing she’s doing this in China. In America that behavior would be considered unusual and would be investigated. However, in China, it appears that if you are a wanted criminal, you should stay in one spot and really make yourself stand out. Good to know.
Finally, the SEAL’s "rescue" her, a Chinese satellite is making it’s way towards them so they have to get away from the beach fast, and… the sub has to crash dive in order to avoid detection?! WHAT?! So they eject the seal team underwater, and then surface to enjoy the brisk air? WTF?
That was the limit of my ability to suspend disbelief and buy into the show. I’d been hoping that it would get better, but at this point, I was done. I knew this show wasn’t going to go onto the scheduled recordings list.
There were some other parts of the show that were just as bad, but I believe I’ve given you enough highlights to know whether you’d enjoy it or not.
The shame of it is – the actual episode plot concept was a good one! If they had done it without all the technical errors and perhaps not treated some of the characters as if the military was staffed by a bunch of stereotypes (the daring Colonel fresh from Afghanistan, the staffer with an attitude but who can get anything done, the General cranking the 70’s music in the Pentagon, etc), it could have been a very good show.
Oh well, spares me 42 minutes a week…
Post a comment and chime in! Agree or disagree?