Eureka: Season One (2006) Review

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(More customer reviews)Welcome to EUREKA, the weirdest town in America, and also the title to the Sci-Fi Channel's inventive, breath of fresh air television series. Here's the set-up: When U.S. Marshal Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson) transports his rebellious, runaway daughter Zoey (Jordan Hinson) home in his custody, an auto accident lands him and his charge in Eureka, a top-secret, rustic town populated by eccentrics and genius scientists. Carter immediately becomes aware of Eureka's uniqueness as embodied in its odd residents who are more than they seem: an auto mechanic who's also a space shuttle engineer, a beautiful innkeeper who doubles as a psychotherapist, children who give intricate directions and who write mathematical formulas on the sidewalk...Added to the peculiar sights he witnesses, Carter's interest is further piqued when his offers to help the local constabulary in a missing child case is summarily rebuffed.

In due course, he does learn the secret of Eureka, of which origin dates back to Albert Einstein and Harry S. Truman, who, after World War 2 and the scare of the atomic bomb, decided to build the tiny town as a safe haven and a workplace for our nation's greatest thinkers. In the fifty years of Eureka's existence, its residents have been hugely responsible for most of today's technological advances. But, of course, not everything can be a bonafide success. Global warming, for example, has been touted as one side effect of one experimental goof in Eureka. Sworn to secrecy, Jack Carter proves to be instrumental in resolving a horrific scientific project gone awry, impressing the powers-that-be enough that he ends up as the new Sheriff of Eureka.
The series is colorfully flavored with a host of idiosyncratic characters effectively brought to life by a good cast: Carter's mutinous daughter Zoey (Jordan Hinson); the beautiful, gung-ho ex-Army Ranger and current Deputy Sheriff Josefina "Jo" Lupo (Erica Cerra, with whom I think I'm in love); Department of Defense agent Allison Blake (Salli Richardson-Whitfield), who toils as the government liaison between Eureka and the Pentagon and who, by the way, looks muy caliente in her pink undies; Nathan Stark (Ed Quinn), the icy, controlling head researcher of Global Dynamics and also Allison's husband; the insightful and sexy psychotherapist Beverly Barlowe (Debrah Farentino), who has dark secrets of her own; genial guy and mechanical genius Henry Deacon (Joe Morton), who slums as a car mechanic; the unstable Aussie Jim Taggart (Matt Frewer), the self-styled "biological containment specialist"; and young Douglas Fargo (Neil Grayston), the bespectacled, sycophant computer geek. By the way, solely from a red-blooded dude's perspective, it's always appreciated when three gorgeous females are featured regularly in the same show, and Richardson-Whitfield, Farentino, and Cerra contribute in lifting EUREKA to new heights of must-see-TV-ness.
Colin Ferguson's performance as Sheriff Jack Carter provides the bridge and the grounding point of view for the audience. As the witty, perceptive, and sometimes lost-at-sea Sheriff, he hits all the right notes here. His normal guy reactions to the endless slew of strangeness surrounding him are believable and, at times, hilarious. There's some nice verbal sparring (read: sexual tension) between Carter and Allison, but I particularly relish the chemistry *snicker* between Carter and his fully automated, hermetically sealed, very vocal military bunker/smart house, S.A.R.A.H.
As a television series, EUREKA proved to be the highest-rated show on the Sci-Fi Channel of 2006, beating out the equally excellent, revamped BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. This exuberant show is equal parts X-FILES, TWILIGHT ZONE, STAR TREK and NORTHERN EXPOSURE in its playful quirkiness and forays into the weird; not to mention, the whistly, whimsical theme tune puts you immediately in sync with the show's oddball frequency.

These are some of the tried and true sci-fi themes that are touched on: ESP, cloning, cell regeneration, mind manipulation, death rays, super speed, AIs, and nanotechnology. The laudable special effects are there when needed but do not overwhelm the show; the episodes are engrossing, if a bit warped at times, and the season's main story arc, involving the super secret Section 5 and something called the Artifact, promises to go somewhere. I'm so glad the Sci-Fi Channel decided to renew this series for a second season. So, if you want to catch a show where crazy quantum physics regularly run amok, where wild inventions surface on a daily basis which are, by the way, gadgety cool enough to make even James Bond swoon, and where cheerleaders spout theorems and school nerds run the school, and also where the world is constantly threatened by the scientific lab toys of Eureka's brilliant but erratic personalities...well, then, yes, get your geek on and give EUREKA: SEASON ONE a whirl.


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Some of the government's best-kept secrets are waiting to be uncovered as Eureka:Season One arrives on DVD! Step into the quirky and seemingly perfect small town of Eureka, where the hidden work of America's brightest scientists can lead to innovation or utter chaos. Making sense of the mysteries is Sheriff Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson), a former U.S. marshal who is stranded in the surreal small town after a random car accident. Now fans can get in on his entertaining adventures with this 3-disc set packed with over 10 hours of bonus features and innovatively packaged in eco-friendly materials that were "Made in Eureka." Nothing is as it seems in the brilliant and witty new series critics are calling "the most original new drams" (The Courier-Journal).

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