The second last Century City review is now
up. Sorry for not posting it Thursday, but my home
Internet access has been extremely erratic lately, and
this is the first time I’ve been online in a couple of
weeks. I’ve got four other articles to post today,
too: wish me luck. (X-Men and Blade
double feature reviews, weekly DVD picks, and monthly
comic picks.)

Cast and Crew

Nestor Carbonell as Tom Montero

Viola Davis as Hannah Crane

Ioan Gruffudd as Lukas Gold

Kristin Lehman as Lee May Bristol

Eric Schaeffer as Darwin McNeil

Hector Elizondo as Martin Constable

Created by Ed Zuckerman.

Written by David Gerkin.

Directed by David Straiton.

Complete information is
available from this
IMDB
page.


Past TV reviews can be found here.
Note
that my home Internet access has been erratic for a
couple of weeks,
and won’t be repaired until August 27, so this hasn’t
been updated
lately.

Synopsis

Again, we have serious and light cases with thematic
similarities.
The serious case is about a widow who discovers that
her husband
created an incredible holographic simulation of
himself, and she
fights to have this version of Spencer with her,
rather than leave it
at the University to be reverse engineered and
disassembled. The
light case is about a man whose mother (Adrienne
Barbeau) set up a
website designed specifically to prevent women from
dating him.

High Point

Using facts about Lee May to distract Darwin.

Low Point

Yet another victory on shaky legal ground. Will these
lawyers never
lose? (Yes, they did lose once, but find a law firm
in real life that
win 15/16 cases without becoming one of the most high
profile firms
around. Those stats don’t even count next week’s
episode.)

The Review

These episode dealt with some of the least
original casework
of the series. The “dontdatebarrybronsan.com” case is
not unlike real
Internet use right now, and the “can an AI vote?” case
is something
that’s been debated heatedly for a while. The
dichotemy of the two
with the “lost love” theme is new, as is the work with
Lee May. I
give it 3 out of 6.

The effects are the usual subtle, fluid
effects we’ve come to
expect. 6 out of 6.

The story has a good dichotemy and some nice
character work.
My only complaint is how easily the verdict came. I
give it 4 out of
6.

The acting was good. The weaker regular cast
members had
very small roles, and the guest cast played their
parts well. I give
it 5 out of 6.

The emotional response is positive. The
light story was
definitely amusing, and I did have some interest in
the take on
virtual Spencer. This is the most obvious hit they’ve
had on laws
we’ll need to create. I give it 4 out of 6.

The production is the Century City norm. I
give it 5 out of 6.

Overall, this was a good episode, and worth
watching, even if
we’ve seen this debate before. I give it 5 out of 6.

In total, The Haunting receives 32 out of 42.

Additional Notes and Comments

On Wednesday, August 24, 2005, Space: The Imagination
Station will air the final episode of the series.
There is some great character work in that one,
particularly for Darwin (who actually grows up a bit)
and Lee May.