TV Review: Surface Episode 1.05

Monday, October 17, 2005

From NBC: Good friends and keepers of "Nimrod," Miles (Carter Jenkins) and Phil (Eddie Hassell), are confronted and questioned by Animal Control officers when a neighbor's dog is reported missing. Meanwhile, Laura (Lake Bell) and Richard (Jay R. Ferguson) continue to follow the unidentified species via a GPS tracking device from a local pier when suddenly all the power in the city goes out and digital data is destroyed. Elsewhere, Circo (Rade Sherbedgia) and Lee (Ian Anthony Dale), who have been secretly following Laura, invite her to join their investigation. Leighton Meester also stars.

My Rating:

On last week's Surface, Laura chased down one of the creatures and placed a tracking device on it, Nimrod attacked and ate a young girl's dog, and Rich looked like he was ready to give up on all this creature stuff, and return home to his wife and family. That is until he sees a picture in a newspaper that looks just like what he has been drawing. This week, Laura keeps tracking the creature she tagged, Animal Control gets involved when the smal dog is reported missing by its owners, and Rich joins Laura in California.

Rich decides to join Laura in California, leaving his family behind in Louisiana. He immediately asks her if she has experienced anything similar to what he has in the last few weeks. She hasn't, and as they are talking her computer starts to ping with a warning. The creature she has tagged seems to be moving closer towards land. She watches the creatures movements, and tracks it to a possible location where it will go - a location just a few hours away by car.

However, she isn't the only one tracking the creature using her GPS device. Someone has picked up on her signal. Circo and his crew track the signal to her, but Circo makes a stand here. If anything happens to Laura, he will quit the project following the creatures.

Rich and her go to investigate after dropping her son off with his father - Rich driving like a mad man in order for them to make it on time. Laura keeps an eye on the creature using her laptop, and they make it to the location just as the creature comes out of the water. They have their camera ready to catch it on film, along with many other sightseers in the area. The US Coast Guard even comes into play when they try to lure the creature back out to sea, but instead the creatures goes under. Laura and Rich know the creature is still in the area because they can hear it. Out of nowhere, the creature emits a pulse that ends up wiping out all the footage shot of it by Laura's camera and others. She once again doesn't have any visual evidence of the creature.

As the day progresses, the tracking device leads the government to the creature and Laura, and they find her at the creature sighting. Circo comes to her, and now he has a change of tune. He wants Laura to work with him now. She isn't too keen on this, especially since she has now been accused of plagirism because of her work on the case of the unexplainable new creature. We have no idea what her decision is to Circo's and the government's offer because the show ends soon after.

Now what about the third part of this triangle between Laura, Rich and Miles? Miles is still at home, and he is trying to hide the infant creature from the Animal Control following the disappearance of a family dog. His parent's are adamant that he has no pet, but we all know he has been lying to his parents about Nim since that first night. The animal control starts to look for the creature, swimming around Phil's outdoor pool with a wand, but the pool ends up breaking, and water is let loose all over, covering Miles' sister in what up to her ankles.

In order to hide Nim from animal creature, Phil decides to put Nim in Miles' mother's car. A smart idea at the time, but the smartness of it soon fades as his mother decides to go to the store to take back the broken aquarium. Yes, Nim is off on a field trip. He gets out of the car, and starts going through the aisles of the store and causing trouble. Not much trouble, but enough to get him noticed and animal control called once again. Nim ends up escaping the store after even getting shot by a nail gun. However, by the end of the episode, Mim has dound his way back home to Miles. He even knocks on his bedroom window, so that Miles can let the creature in. Once inside, he hops onto bed and under the covers to sleep. I think almost anyone can agree that this scene was cute.

Another good episode for this show. Just earlier today, NBC announced that it was giving the show a full season order. Something I am happy to see. This episode is probably one of the slowest of this series to date, but it is an important episode. It is laying the groundwork for what is to come. We have two of our three main characters now together. If Laura joins Circo, this also would make things interesting.

We can see that in the near future Miles will have to join the other two as we saw he will do sometime in the next few episodes from previous previews. Not only do we have the creature, but we see the characters develop as well. Rich has left his wife in a sense, and she thinks he is cheating on her with Laura when he hears them in the background. Circo is starting to see Laura as a younger colleague and I get the feeling that this relationship will go stronger in time. Almost like a mentor/mentee relationship.

I loved how they introduced the creature to the world in this episode. It wasn't violent. It just was. The scene was one full of wonder and not of fright. This is something similar to what audiences experienced with Close Encounters of the Third Kind. At least that is what immediately comes to my mind. The comparisions have been made by critics between this show and Spielberg, and I can see the reason why in this episode. there is one thing that confused me though. Laura first calls the creature him and then her. It kind of makes things interesting that she doesn't even know what it is, but it is still a bit confusing as well. I'm really glad to know this show is sticking around for the rest of the season. I wonder what else they have in store for us!