Add another to the “I saw a commercial for this before/after a WWE program so when I saw it on Netflix I gave it a shot” list. I’ve got to admit, seeing this advert on Scyfy after ECW yielded a much more satisfying result than anything that RAW or Smackdown has ever given me. One episode of “Burn Notice” was enough thank you. I know for a fact wrestling fans don’t miss “Monk” being on the air. The staunch contrast between watching HHH fight Goldberg being interrupted by Tony Shalhoub doing dishes was jarring. I’m veering wildly off course here. Let’s stop focusing on wrestling nerds and deal with science nerds.
I would call “Eureka” a smarter attempt at pulling in the “Big Bang Theory Audience”. The latter though has very formulaic plots and horrible dialogue, so of course that is the most popular show on television. Conversely the former has fairly convoluted stories, very complicated dialogue and THEY ENTER AN ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE AND NEVER FIX IT! That’s right. They had the audacity to complete screw up everyone’s lives after botched time travel and do not fix it. Middle America is not okay with that. If we have learned anything it’s that people don’t want to be shocked or made to think. Add in an astoundingly high budget and “Eureka” craps out with 5 seasons.
It was probably for the best. As much as I surprisingly enjoyed the program, I think there are only so many ways you can almost kill everyone before that well is tapped. You can tell the creators saw the hit coming though because they wrapped everything up very nicely in the final episode. For only having five seasons, this show packed a lot of characters and story lines in. I mean one of my favorite characters is gone after episode 2. There is a lot of coming and going in the streets of Eureka. Let’s go from most important on down (according to Wikipedia listing that is. If it were with my heart I’d talk about Jim “Max Headroom” Taggert the whole time.)
We’re introduced to the US government funded city Eureka through the eyes of Jack and Zoe Carter. Jack (a US Marshal at the time) is hauling his daughter in the back of his cop car back home to her mother. They get stuck in this weird town. I don’t remember the pilot all that well, but after some kind of tachyon accelerator mix up and a whole host of people you never see again, we get into the regular series with Jack being transferred to being the Sheriff of Eureka and Zoe living with him. She eventually goes from idiot delinquent to graduating summa cum laude from Harvard. She also ditches her super cool boyfriend Lucas because of that whole timeline slip. That poor guy.
Next we have Dr. Allison Blake and Dr. Nathan Stark. They were once married. Allison is the government’s liason to Eureka and Nathan is the head of Global Dynamics (the company everyone works for and creates stuff for). They also were married and have an autistic son named Kevin. They try getting back together but Nathan sees that Allison and Jack are in love so he sacrifices himself when one of the experiments goes horribly wrong. Kevin is not autistic in the new time line and is instead seems to be the smartest person in town. Jack Carter and Allison eventually get married and in the finale we find out that Allison is now having a 3rd man’s baby. It’s Jack’s people.
Next we’ve got town psychic Beverley Barlowe. Early on it seems like she’s trying to make moves on Carter, but it turns out she’s been stealing info Eureka and feeding it to US Senator Wen. We find out Bev is evil very early on and she’s on and off in her appearances. In the end of the series when the Senator goes crazy and starts killing people, Beverley steps up and helps save the day. In the alternate timeline she is incahoots with….
The wonderful Dr. Henry Deacon and Dr. Grace Monroe. This one is complicated. In the original series Grace wasn’t a thing. Henry lived alone and worked on cars because he became disenfranchised with Global Dynamics. He worked with a blonde kid (my favorite character who left) and generally worked free lance and helped the idiot sheriff. New timeline comes and he’s married to this cool lady. They eventually fall in love and stay together. The end of the series sees them almost get destroyed because new Henry finds out old Henry was a spy. It’s a whole thing. Watch the show. Henry also has an old wife named Kim that gets killed, then cloned, but dies again after being in a spaceship. It’s complicated.
Next on the list is Jo Lupo. She is originally the kick ass sheriff to Carter but post timeline she becomes the head of security at GD. Despite her tough exterior and military background, allusions are made to her wishing to have a softer side. Her character track kind of goes off the rails when Zane Donavan enters the scene. He’s bad man who they recruit to work in GD. It works out. They fall in love. He proposes and Jo says maybe. Timeline slips, he doesn’t even like Jo. Eventually though she wins him back over and they are engaged at the finale. I like Zane because he’s a fun character, but he could never win me over because he replaced my favorite character as Jo’s love interest.
Another love triangle (a running theme I didn’t notice until now) was between Dr. Douglas Fargo, Dr. Holly Marten and Will Wheaton. They call him Isaac Parrish but he’s Will. And don’t check Wikipedia, I bumped him up in importance admittedly. Doug is a weasel and kiss ass in our original timeline. He ends up being the head of Global Dynamics. Wheaton hates him either way and they spar over the affections of Holly Marten who they brought in for the big important space mission that never happens so don’t get your hopes up. Holly and Doug fall in love. The whole crew on the ship gets kidnapped, a big conspiracy breaks out and Holly dies at the hands of Wen. Eureka spits in God’s face though and downloads her consciousness into a replica body? She forgets everything about Doug but falls back in love with him super quick because WE’RE ABOUT TO GET CANCELLED!
This taking too long and I’ve barely covered any plot. It’s probably not going to happen so enjoy these character profiles then go find this on Netflix. It’s fun, smart, and well written albeit a little drama heavy at times. Let’s start with the man that caused all this ridiculous timeline stuff:
Dr. Trevor Grant was an assistant to Albert Einstein in 1940. He lives in the 1947 military base version of Eureka. He likes Allison and tries to leave Jack in the past and comes to 2010 ruining everything. Eventually he realizes he stuck and leaves. The last episode sees him return to save Eureka from being shut down.
This is a picture of a man inside his girlfriend. Not as gross as you’d think. SARAH is the house the Carters live in. It’s a smart house created by and voiced by Fargo. She eventually starts to date Deputy Andy. He’s a robot and he’s just the bee’s knees. He’s the only really good thing to come from the alternate timeline.
I’m skipping Eva Thorne. She seemed pointless. Instead her is Tess Fontana. She’s Allison’s pal that is brought in to run the crazy section of GD. Allison is busy rekindling with Nathan so her and Jack hit it off. In one of my least favorite turns, she gets dumped so Jack can pursue Allison. Tess was way cooler and didn’t make him her second choice. I hate to get too involved in the love story, but it was crap.
I’m skipping some more people. This is getting to be my longest review ever. This is Vincent. His flamboyant existence in Eureka seems to stress him out to the point of panic. He does get very happy though when his stupid kitchen doesn’t blow up. He works at “Café Diem” and feeds the town ridiculous food and has a never ending freezer.
Lastly is the greatest man alive: Jim Taggert. His role becomes less important as the show goes on. First episode he’s a dog catcher and kidnaps the sheriff. He eventually drifts in and out of town, sometimes hooking up with Jo and helping out with animals and hunting Santa. I get why they replaced him with the cut dude that plays Zane, but it was really a shame. The last episode he finally catches that stupid dog . The end.
