OK, first thing’s first; is this new series an adequate replacement for LOST? In a word no, in two words, no way. But, is this show as bad as it sounded? That answer surprisingly is also a resounding no. I actually would have skipped this show but since we had talked about it a few times here at Mania in the comments of other reviews I thought I should give it a look. I asked myself in the closing moments of Jericho, how can an action version of Groundhog Day be good?
Taye Diggs plays Hooper, a hard boiled “kick ass and ask questions later” Los Angles police detective who wakes up one day to find himself framed for a murder and embroiled in a high reaching conspiracy. His day starts like any other, he wakes up takes a shower, leaves his girlfriends apartment and goes home to get his mail. While at home, he discovers his apartment has been ransacked and just as he turns to leave the door is busted in SWAT and Hooper is arrested. He’s questioned, processed and sent to prison to await trial. The day comes to an end when he is kidnapped right out of prison and taken to a rock quarry, beaten and told he must confess to the murder. A shadowy figure shows him a video of his girlfriend being murdered and a second of his sister and her child being watched. He’s told that if he doesn’t confess his sister will be killed too. Then they knock him out. The next day he wakes up back in bed with his girlfriend. He shakes off the previous events as a bad dream but through way too many visual cues he begins to realize that this was no dream, that he is reliving the same day over again.
Early in the two hour premiere, he stumbles through the second day but by the third he is using the information he picked up from the previous two attempts at the day to uncover the truth about what is happening to him all the while trying to protect his girlfriend from being murdered. In a brilliant move by the writers of the series Hooper doesn’t tell many people what is happening to him. He instead uses his knowledge to either outthink those after him or to completely throw them off guard. This doesn’t work so well with the homicide detectives that are after him because it just serves to make him more suspicious but it works a few times brilliantly against those trying to frame him. It was good to see him finish the shadowy man’s speech in the rock quarry taking the villain aback but nonetheless still seeing the tape of his girlfriend getting killed. Not only does Hooper take information he gained into each new version of the day but he also takes any physical damage with him too. On one version of the day, he is shot and the next day he wakes up in his girlfriend’s bed covered in blood.
As Hooper does different things each day to try and take control of the situations side stories also change and grow. With each incarnation of the day we learn a little more about the Internal Affairs officer out to get Hooper’s partner who seems to be on the take. We also learn that said internal affairs officer also used to be married to Hooper’s current girlfriend. Some things that Hooper does trying to save himself actually gives other characters a better chance of working out their own problems. It’s a riveting puzzle that seems to grow more tendrils with each passing day. I think this series and its core concept has a limited shelf life and so does ABC as they are promoting it as a 13 episode series with a story conclusion on the last episode. This is a smart way to run this series as those watching know the answers are all coming very soon. The 11 remaining episodes are just long enough for a good ride without the series overstaying its welcome. My biggest question is how will they explain what is happening to Hooper? Maybe they won’t. The creators of the series undoubtedly paid a great deal of attention to 24 as they built this series because it too all happens in one day and if the story here is to end in 13 episodes another season would most likely feature another story and another day.
The cast for Day Break features some familiar faces that I must admit made me happy just see these people working again. Mitch Pillegi brought a lot to The X-Files during his tenure and I hope he’ll do the same for this series. It was also great to see Adam Baldwin playing full on cop with just a little Jane from Firefly when it’s necessary. Diggs himself does a fine job in the lead and Moon Bloodgood, handles the left field drama of the concept just fine. Oh and here’s another fanboy reference for you, the potentially dirty cop is played by Victoria Pratt who was a series regular on Mutant X and Cleopatra 2525. I didn’t watch either of those series but I just knew I had seen her somewhere before. At the end of the series I was still ticked off not to be watching LOST but this will be a good 11 week diversion until LOST comes back. Oh and the highly promoted scene from next year’s LOST episodes is so short if you blinked, you’d miss it.
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