Network: USA; Genre: Western, Crime; Content Rating: TV-PG (for mild violence); Classification: Contemporary (Star range: 1 - 4);
Season Reviewed: Complete Series (1 season)
In the 1882 old west sheriff Marshal Stone (Tom Berenger) rounds up criminals and solves crimes with the help of a scientist (Peter O'Meara) who introduces the sheriff to the early prototypes of what would become modern technology and forensic pathology. It is laughable to describe USA's 'Peacemakers'. Is the procedural criminal drama so hard up for new ideas that mixing it into the long dead genre of the western actually seemed inspired?
I fail to see the allure of the procedural show, but I imagine that the intrigue of a 'CSI' is that we see things we didn't know could be done. The layperson doesn't know how crimes are solved with the finding of a single hair or smudge on a glass. However, the premise that 'Peacemakers' asks us to choke down involves us transplanting ourselves to the last century and being marveled at mundane stuff, such as tape recorders and fingerprinting, that everybody uses, or knows about, everyday. Characters look at this stuff in amazement, criminals get worked up over the appearance of this new fangled "magic" and we, the audience, throw up our hands and go "so what".
On the face of it, I'm behind this kind of absurd mixing of genres - even dead ones. But 'Peacemakers' takes itself with an unbelievable amount of seriousness. Any electrical impulse Berenger's performance gives off could be confused for a bag of sand. He looks like he's waiting for the paycheck to clear so they can finish filling in the pool. The rest of the cast are either armatures or going through the paces, droning out this corny back-and-forth banter like automatons. The characters are paper-thin, the stories don't even begin to be interesting, there are romantic subplots tacked on instantaneously when needed and a completely uninspired visual style. But to just rattle off a list of the mechanical qualities this thing falls short in doesn't begin to do justice to the fluid mediocrity - and frankly, stupidity - that runs pervasive through it.
'Peacemakers' is a flat-out no-nonsense, honest to goodness turkey for USA. There isn't much more to it. It is one of the more tedious and fundamentally ridiculous shows I've gotten a chance to sit through. And that said in a year when any scripted series is greeted as a gasp of air from the onslaught of reality TV is really something. It was an experiment for USA, one that only a cable network would take, but when the result comes out like this it's hard to give it any points for ambition. Silly stuff.
* / 4
Season Reviewed: Complete Series (1 season)
In the 1882 old west sheriff Marshal Stone (Tom Berenger) rounds up criminals and solves crimes with the help of a scientist (Peter O'Meara) who introduces the sheriff to the early prototypes of what would become modern technology and forensic pathology. It is laughable to describe USA's 'Peacemakers'. Is the procedural criminal drama so hard up for new ideas that mixing it into the long dead genre of the western actually seemed inspired?
I fail to see the allure of the procedural show, but I imagine that the intrigue of a 'CSI' is that we see things we didn't know could be done. The layperson doesn't know how crimes are solved with the finding of a single hair or smudge on a glass. However, the premise that 'Peacemakers' asks us to choke down involves us transplanting ourselves to the last century and being marveled at mundane stuff, such as tape recorders and fingerprinting, that everybody uses, or knows about, everyday. Characters look at this stuff in amazement, criminals get worked up over the appearance of this new fangled "magic" and we, the audience, throw up our hands and go "so what".
On the face of it, I'm behind this kind of absurd mixing of genres - even dead ones. But 'Peacemakers' takes itself with an unbelievable amount of seriousness. Any electrical impulse Berenger's performance gives off could be confused for a bag of sand. He looks like he's waiting for the paycheck to clear so they can finish filling in the pool. The rest of the cast are either armatures or going through the paces, droning out this corny back-and-forth banter like automatons. The characters are paper-thin, the stories don't even begin to be interesting, there are romantic subplots tacked on instantaneously when needed and a completely uninspired visual style. But to just rattle off a list of the mechanical qualities this thing falls short in doesn't begin to do justice to the fluid mediocrity - and frankly, stupidity - that runs pervasive through it.
'Peacemakers' is a flat-out no-nonsense, honest to goodness turkey for USA. There isn't much more to it. It is one of the more tedious and fundamentally ridiculous shows I've gotten a chance to sit through. And that said in a year when any scripted series is greeted as a gasp of air from the onslaught of reality TV is really something. It was an experiment for USA, one that only a cable network would take, but when the result comes out like this it's hard to give it any points for ambition. Silly stuff.
* / 4