Century City Review – “Only You”

This was the series finale. It had a good run, and a
chance to end things properly, but the show could have
lasted longer had the audience found it. This show
did a very good job of the predictive social
commentary that science fiction is so good at.

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

Written by creator by Ed Zuckerman.

Directed by Jerry Levine.

Complete information is
available from this
IMDB
page
.


Past TV reviews can be found here.

Synopsis

Again, we have two cases, but this time, we also have
a
character-driven third arc. The first case is about a
murder
suspect that the firm chose to defend before learning
that the door to
his apartment (where he says he found his wife after
she was murdered)
and the murder weapon were keyed to respond only to
his DNA. The
second case is also a serious one; members of the
Genetic Prototype
Project (including Lee May) have been made sterile,
and may be subject
to extremely rapid agin. The third story arc is also
a serious one,
in which Darwin tracks down the model for his digital
assistant, but
she doesn’t live up to his expectations. There were
amusing moments,
but it looks like it was written as a series finale,
and they were too
busy driving forward the drama and tying up loose ends
to spend a lot
of time on something designed specifically to be
funny.

High Point

The last scene, in which the characters really pull
together as a
unit, were great. We see a completely new side to
Darwin, and some
great work with Lee May. (The sterility was a nice
touch, adding a
pair of important drawbacks to the prototype project,
to offset the
advatages she seemed to have early.) Darwin’s
instincts during the
opening conversation came in a close second.

Low Point

There appeared to be no examination of timelines in
the murder case.
He was driving in from another city, which implies
that he would have
been on the smart freeways that were established in an
earlier
episode. Also established was the fact that the
freeway logs the
times you enter and leave. That could have easily
been compared to
the time of death to determine whether or not he was a
suspect, but
no mention was made.

The Review

This has some original aspects. Using an
updated version of
a major camp movie plot device wasn’t the most
original, apart from
having a plausible justification of the twist. It’s
the other two
threads that really brought things together with new
material. I give
it 4 out of 6.

The effects were as flawlessly integrated as
before. 6 out
of 6.

The story had a decent murder trial for the
regular court
case, but the other stories were much stronger.
Darwin’s would have
been more effective had the episodes been aired in
order. (Instead,
he sees the model for the first time five episodes
before chasing her
down, instead of seeing her in the previous episode.
Then again, what
else should we expect? The broadcast order had Darwin
interacting
with the digital assistant weeks before it was
installed.) I give it
4 out of 6.

The acting from regular cast members
Schaeffer, Lehman,
Williams, and Elizondo was very good. The guest cast
(including
“Rocketeer” Billy Campbell) was also strong. This
episode simply had
some of the best acting in the series. I give it 5
out of 6.

The emotional response gets a big boost this
week, grounding
two of the stories in emotional trials of the lawyers
themselves.
Connecting to the characters we’ve begun to know helps
considerably
when trying to get the actors emoting and the viewers
responding. I
give it 5 out of 6.

The production is typical for the series.
They do a decent
job, with bright lighting in most of the world and
dark lighting in
the prisons. The camera work could be a little more
dynamic,
especially when the long shot pays off in court, but
it’s not bad. I
give it 5 out of 6.

Overall, it’s a nice series ender, tying up
all loose ends
save the Lee May/Lukas quasi-relationship. (This gets
some
development, but it’s not wrapped up. I would almost
suspect a
concluding scene to have been cut for time, given
where the murder
case was taking the Lukas character as it developed.)
It would have
been much more effective had the episodes been aired
in order. I give
it 5 out of 6.

In total, Only You receives 34 out of 42.