When an established show that I'm already quite affectionate about uses the term "reboot," I get a little twitchy. I'm old school like that. So, when that term started getting kicked around about the fourth season of Eureka, already a gem of a show on Syfy that had the rug pulled out from under it last year when the network chose to split the third season into two segments twelve months apart, reboot seemed liked insult, meet injury.
I do have to concede just a little bit that a lot happened in season three, so much that probably if it had aired altogether you would have experienced a bit of whiplash trying to process everything. By the end of the season, which aired last September, the widowed Allison gave birth to a daughter, delivered by her true love (as far as I'm concerned), Sheriff Jack Carter, and his daughter, Zoe, who was about to leave for Harvard. Carter was experiencing a little of the” should I stay or should I go” blues because his newly minted relationship with Tess was about to be tested as she departed for a job in Australia. Deputy Jo was humming along with a reformed Zane, happy and in love. Fargo had a steady gal. And the extraordinarily wounded Henry was doing the best he could after losing his wife a second time when her doppelganger/clone died. So, a goodly amount of change and sadness abounded as season three concluded.
Cut to ten months later, and Eureka is back, being teased as a new variation of itself. Well, they lied. Sort of. I'd call it more a new old Eureka, in a very, very good way. The original sense of whimsy is back and the "roll with it" nature that Carter arrived in Eureka with is back, too. The season kicked off with a time travel bent, sending all of its regular cast members into a backward jaunt to 1947 Camp Eureka, before it was a town, complete with big band music, wartime costumes, and guys and gals sensibility. And it was awesome. I spent the first half hour not entirely sure whether the whole season was going to stay in the past and then I didn't care, I just went with it.
The crew all jump at the same time, but don't end up in the same physical location when they land, so after a variety of near-misses with the brig and with the aid of resident genius Charles Grant, a PhD inventor and colleague of Einstein, they reconvene and brainstorm a way to get back home. They do get back to 2010, just not their 2010. Eureka is intact, except for tiny little wrinkles in people and things that occurred because of the crew's leap. Since protocol dictates they can’t tell anyone what happened, they're suddenly somewhat begrudging confidantes of a very big secret. Add to that the biggest wrinkle -- Charles jumped back with them.
Among the changes in the new/old town of Eureka, Allison's formerly autistic teen son, Kevin, is a happy, healthy, normal, and extraordinarily intelligent high school student. She's lost her GD presidency and is now lead doctor at the site, which actually suits her better. Jo and this version of Zane never happened; Jo’s crushed because he proposed just before the leap back and she had hesitated, so she has guilt about not saying yes and grief for a Zane that doesn’t exist here. The blow is softened when she finds out she’s no longer a deputy but is the head of security at GD. Carter is still sheriff and Zoe is still at Harvard, but this Tess never left town, and that's complicated because Carter finally kissed Allison in 1947 when he thought they might never go home. Henry has a lovely, brilliant wife, Grace, who he doesn't know. Finally, Fargo is giddy to find out he’s the head of GD. He dives right in, although he's sort of alarmed that this world's Fargo has been a complete dick to everyone, so his actual personality -- massive ego with a side of sweet and nerdy, is a welcome change to everyone at GD.
The setup creates a lot of new scenarios for the team without changing who they are as characters, so their chemistry is still very intact, which works well -- the town is different, the cast is not. Very clever, show! Jo is also now Carter's roommate because her house was blown up by an errant missile, and I hope they're just going to be roommates. I realize shows like to add drama to potential pairings but I think we've waited long enough for Carter and Allison to happen, and I don't want Carter and Jo to go there on some sort of rebound thing while she pines for Zane. The other potential tangent is that Trevor, who is settling in as a man of 2010 (although he's disappointed about the lack of flying cars) is very flirty with Allison. Sidebar: James Callis is new to the show, and he is super funny and charming as Charles. He is absolutely NOT rehashing the wild-eyed Gaius Baltar, which was my concern when he was cast.
There's also a neat role that's rotated twice so far with familiar Canadians (the show shoots in British Columbia) -- Andy the cyborg deputy -- played first by Ty Olsson of Men in Trees and then, after being "reskinned," Kavan Smith of The 4400. I look forward to seeing who they bring in next.
Now for the big suck. Syfy is again breaking the season -- 20 episodes have been ordered, but Syfy is ending the summer run on September 10th with episode 9, with the back 11 slated to return "sometime in 2011." Can we get that in late winter/early spring and not next summer, pretty please?
Next up I'll recap the newest episode, "Crossing Over," which concluded the cast swap with Warehouse 13.
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