[TV] Syfy's Haven - Elena Fisher, er, I mean Emily Rose gets a show!

[Turtle]

So, I've been looking forward to the actress Emily Rose, aka Elena Fisher from Uncharted, getting some major role on TV for a while now since she has shown she's a good actress on Uncharted.  Well, now she gets a leading role, and I have to say I'm enjoying what I'm seeing.

Syfy's all-new one-hour drama series Haven, starring Emily Rose (Jericho, Brothers and Sisters) is based on the novella The Colorado Kid from renowned author Stephen King. The series follows the shrewd and confident FBI agent Audrey Parker (Rose) who has a lost past, and arrives in the small town of Haven, Maine on a routine case. Before long, her natural curiosity lands her in the epicenter of activity in this curious enclave, which turns out to be a longtime refuge for people that are affected by a range of supernatural afflictions.

This looks to be another good one, more mystery and drama oriented and the cast is solid. The mystery pacing and effects can get a little, well, typical "scifi channel show" at times. The story is interesting enough that it works. However, it looks like the storyline will be a bit of "freak of the week" style with a long term overarching story on top of that, similar to shows like Supernatural.

Rose didn't come off well in interviews I've seen her in for stuff like Uncharted, but that's partly because of how Nolan tends to dominate the mic and camera, same for Claudia Black, they're both much more experienced. But, Rose has real acting chops and a good look to her.

[MonkeyFinger]

Hmmm... missed this last night, have the DVR queued up for the 8am rebroadcast this morning.

[CeeKay]

my DVR should have grabbed it; I set it up to record the show earlier this week in case I forgot it was starting, which I did.

[leo8877]

Mmmm Elena

[rshetts2]

Well Turtle,  I had quite the opposite reaction to this show.  There was no chemistry in it, the pace of the episode was very uneven. Emily Rose may be cute but her acting was terrible.  The plot was very derivative and obvious from the minute they introduced the real "killer".  I will cut it some slack because it was the pilot episode and will need some time for the characters to grow and develop, still if the writing doesnt get better this show will barely make it a season. 

[spigot]

Thought the first episode was okay. Hard to say where they will take the series premise-wise, but like Turtle said it looks to be pretty much a "FBI agent in small town freak of the week" show. Emily's performance was okay as well. Having only "heard" her in the Uncharted games, it'll take a few shows to really see how she performs in real life.

[Turtle]

Pretty much my main concern is the freak of the week thing. Might have worked better if they followed it more closely to the Stephen King style. As it stands it's treading dangerously close to Warehouse 13 territory, and I just can't stand that show anymore. Keep it more subtle, like Alan Wake's weirder moments, or Stephen King style before the bad things come out.

There are times where the characters take on a kind of typical scifi show "quirky and trying too hard to be funny attitude," when really it might work better played straight. Warehouse 13 constantly does this, which can break up the pace of the episode, and the kind of innate pacing of character acting.

Aubrey (Rose) has that kind of odd quirk, but it would work much better if downplayed and kept downplayed, so it comes out as more a subconscious thing, rather than something that's "hey look at me nerd boys, I'm a cute blond who's into the paranormal" shtick.

And yes, Emily could use a lot more time adjusting to a lead role, but it's good for her first.

[Koz]

I thought it was pretty decent. It was quite formulaic and I was hoping they would have done more with the mysterious weather thing, but I liked the characters well enough. The script was kind of mediocre but I thought Rose did pretty well with what she was given.

[disarm]

i watched it this afternoon and enjoyed the show enough to tune in again next week.  we'll see if that interest continues...

[CeeKay]

I put it on and it ended up being background noise for most of the show.   didn't erase it though so I'll give it another shot.

[CeeKay]

OK, so so far they seem to solve the problems and let the 'specials' go off at the end:

Spoiler for Hiden:

weather girl, music man, can't remember what happened to butterfly boy

is it just me or does that seem like a very bad idea to let all these people go free?

[spigot]

"Harmony" was such a silly episode, and not in a good way.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Music soothing the beast, making crazy people sane and vice-versa?

I'm not familiar with King's Colorado Kid, from which this series is inspired, but so far it's been freak-of-the-week fare which is tenuously held together by Audrey trying to learn the secrets of her past. I'll stick with it a few more episodes, but so far it's not really drawing me in yet. Also, the more I see Emily the more she reminds me of Julia Stiles.

[CeeKay]

"Harmony" was such a silly episode, and not in a good way.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Music soothing the beast, making crazy people sane and vice-versa?

Spoiler for Hiden:

I think the idea was the insanity from the girl was temporarily transferred to someone else close by.

[rshetts2]

After that last episode I am putting Haven on death watch.  If SY FY can cancel a show like The Dresden Files, I cant see them letting this dreck survive for much longer.  Did they seriously write one script with blanks in it and then simply fill new special powers and characters in the blanks each week? 

[spigot]

Episode - Ball and Chain

So still watching this. Other than playing up the inevitable sexual tension between Audrey, Nathan and Duke as well as neglecting the main storyline about Audrey's mom/past, this was just another freak-of-the-week episode. And they lost me. This episode was just confusing to me.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Why did Beatrice transform to Helena? Is that just her power? To become a beautiful woman at night, get knocked up and kill the guy she slept with by aging them? Helena gets knocked up, then Beatrice gets the baby? How did Duke get better?

Either they're running out of ideas or pending episodes are just going to get more ridiculous.

[CeeKay]

] I'm not familiar with King's Colorado Kid, from which this series is inspired,

I looked up a synopsis of the story and so far the only ties between it and Haven seems to be both are set in Maine and there's 2 older reporters.

[Turtle]

Yeah, meanwhile Warehouse 13, which I was about to stop watching from the first season now suddenly holds my interest a lot more, they got a lot of the pacing issues ironed out.

Then, Haven basically goes down the path I really didn't want it to. So yeah, have to agree, it's on deathwatch.

[spigot]

So yeah, guess who's still watching this show. Just me?

Audrey has a birthday party to die for.

An okay "whodunit" murder mystery episode. More importantly, we finally make some progress in the main Audrey/Lucy storyline finally, after 9 episodes into the season. It's too bad they killed off

Spoiler for Hiden:

Dr. Eleanor

as much as I wanted her super annoying daughter dispatched instead. I thought she would be around as a series regular, someone whose already experienced "the troubles" and could help counsel Audrey and make some sense of it all. I liked all the cute Steven King references in this episode:

Spoiler for Hiden:

• Creepy big isolated hotel
• Red tricycle
• Misery book

The ending Duke/Lucy reveal is pretty interesting too. If it's at all possible that Duke and Audrey are

Spoiler for Hiden:

brother and sister

, then it would dissolve the almost creepy sexual tension between Duke/Nathan/Audrey. For everyone in the town claiming to be Audrey's friend and helping her, they seem pretty comfortable in keeping so many secrets from her still.

[naednek]

spigot's post was merged into the existing thread.

[Pyperkub]

I just caught up (been sick all week - had 7 episodes on the dvr).  I want more, but does anyone know if it's going to be a miniseries, or an actual series?  I haven't wanted to google too much, as I'd rather be surprised by where it goes.  FWIW, I haven't read the book

I'd much rather it build towards a climax, as the freak of the week thing does get old.  I may not have stuck with it if I hadn't had a bunch queued up, but now I want to (if it builds towards a climax, and not just a season finale).

[Turtle]

It's a whole series. Although, I'm not sure how many episodes there are this season. Scifi also tends to run shows in the gaps between major network shows.

[Pyperkub]

What I'm asking though is whether it's meant to be an ongoing series.  AKA are they going to string this out to a cliffhanger at the end of season 1, and then try to string season 2 into another cliffhanger, etc?  Or will it be just a 1-season series?  Something like Harper's Island?

Or will they pull a Twin Peaks, and extend a limited run idea into a an open ended series and completely blow it thereby?

[disarm]

i don't know that they've officially said anything about how long the show will last, but i'm pretty sure it's supposed to be an ongoing series.  i think the fact that they keep going with the 'monster of the week' style strongly supports this approach...keep making episodes that barely advance any real plot but fill out the seasons total number of episodes.  unfortunately, i may just quit watching if they don't do something new soon...

[rshetts2]

it is a series but as of thursday, it was on SyFy's not yet renewed list.  It hasnt done well in the ratings and is probably done after this season.  If thats the case I hope they have the foresight to try and give it an actual ending instead of just dropping it.

[CeeKay]

great shot at the X-Files this week:

Spoiler for more or less what was said:

Audrey: what about that agent who investigated UFO's?
Agent Howard:  He was brilliant.  what happened in those last few years was a tragedy.

[disarm]

while Haven is still very much following the 'freak of the week' format, they've really stepped things up with the overarching plot in the last few weeks.  the ending of this week's episode was especially interesting...should be interesting to see where they take things next.  after a dozen episodes, they've finally started to make the show interesting beyond the weekly oddity.  unfortunately, next friday is the season finale and we'll probably be waiting quite a while for the show to pick up again...

[theohall]

while Haven is still very much following the 'freak of the week' format, they've really stepped things up with the overarching plot in the last few weeks.  the ending of this week's episode was especially interesting...should be interesting to see where they take things next.  after a dozen episodes, they've finally started to make the show interesting beyond the weekly oddity.  unfortunately, next friday is the season finale and we'll probably be waiting quite a while for the show to pick up again...

I was not that surprised by the ending considering how the Sheriff was acting the entire episode by refusing to let his son actually do anything to help - not even things which were common sense.

[disarm]

while Haven is still very much following the 'freak of the week' format, they've really stepped things up with the overarching plot in the last few weeks.  the ending of this week's episode was especially interesting...should be interesting to see where they take things next.  after a dozen episodes, they've finally started to make the show interesting beyond the weekly oddity.  unfortunately, next friday is the season finale and we'll probably be waiting quite a while for the show to pick up again...

I was not that surprised by the ending considering how the Sheriff was acting the entire episode by refusing to let his son actually do anything to help - not even things which were common sense.

we're not talking about the same episode though...you're a week behind.  last night's episode had absolutely nothing to do with the sheriff but did have a very interesting revelation about a major character in the last few minutes...

[theohall]

while Haven is still very much following the 'freak of the week' format, they've really stepped things up with the overarching plot in the last few weeks.  the ending of this week's episode was especially interesting...should be interesting to see where they take things next.  after a dozen episodes, they've finally started to make the show interesting beyond the weekly oddity.  unfortunately, next friday is the season finale and we'll probably be waiting quite a while for the show to pick up again...

I was not that surprised by the ending considering how the Sheriff was acting the entire episode by refusing to let his son actually do anything to help - not even things which were common sense.

i don't think we're talking about the same episode though...you're a week behind.  last night's episode had absolutely nothing to do with the sheriff but did have a very interesting revelation about a major character in the last few minutes...

My bad... did not watch last night's yet.

[rshetts2]

Well,  I dont think that this is a good sign.  Up until the last episode of Haven both SyFy and Hulu had it available 8 days after airing.  Now they delay the show by 30 days.  Kind of feels like they are writing this show off.

[spigot]

Nice to see Nathan and Duke getting friendly. As far as Audrey though, so she's

Spoiler for Hiden:

a reincarnation of her mother Lucy? Or maybe she is Lucy. Audrey is her own mother!

WHUT.

Where does the man with the tattoo on his arm fit in? Either way, it looks like she was drawn back to Haven to help "the troubled".

[rshetts2]

well this kind of suprises me but SyFy just announced that Haven has been renewed for a second 13 episode season.

[CeeKay]

well this kind of suprises me but SyFy just announced that Haven has been renewed for a second 13 episode season.

That surprises me too. Was last Friday the season finale?  I watched it but I'll be damned if I can remember what it was about.

[spigot]

Finally saw the season finale. Some crazy stuff to be ending the season:

Spoiler for Hiden:

• Nate's real father, Max shows up, puts in a few suspicious scares and is quickly dispatched.
• Nate finds out Chief Wournos is his adoptive father and that he's been the cause of all the cracks in Haven. The chief then can't take it anymore and falls to pieces, literally.
• Julia is still a bitch, but she may be part of some secret Haven cult (possibly lead by The Rev), she's got one of the maze tattoos on her back and it wouldn't surprise me if she kills Duke.
• Audrey suspects that she is actually Lucy Ripley, and the "real" Audrey Parker from the FBI shows up.

[CeeKay]

with all of the 'freaks' in the town I'm convinced that have is

Spoiler for Hiden:

a dumping ground for some kind of organization to keep all of them in one spot.

[CeeKay]

just a heads up this returns July 15th.

[CeeKay]

decent premiere, with a great fake out.

Spoiler for Hiden:

the kid with the paper boat trying to reach down the sewer was a nice nod to It.

[spigot]

I enjoyed the season premiere. Interested to see where they take the dual Audrey storyline and also the persons with the mysterious tattoo. The appearance of Duke's

Spoiler for Hiden:

wife

was an unexpected surprise.

[CeeKay]

second season finale was Friday night, and damn it was a good season, but the cliffhanger seemed to be a dumb one:

Spoiler for Hiden:

yeah, like they're going to kill off either Duke or Nathan

I like how they are setting up sides, but there is no necessarily good or evil side (yet). 

some thoughts:

Spoiler for Hiden:

I have a feeling that Dave and Vince have been with the town a lot longer than people suspect.

at least we know Audrey won't be traveling back in time and dyeing her hair.

it would be really cool for the Chief to come back.  loved his time in the episode tonight.

oh, an there's going to be a Christmas special, which I assume if going to be set before the finale.  I haven't seen any word about a season 3 yet though.

[CeeKay]

so, the X-mas special was last night, and it wasn't half bad.

Spoiler for Hiden:

it took a hint of Under the Dome mixed in with a sprinkle of It's a Wonderful Life.

needless to say they didn't specify when it took place in the storyline, but it was a good one off tale.