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  • TV Series: Haven
  • Episode: Welcome to Haven
  • Starring: Emily Rose, Lucas Bryant, Eric Balfour, Richard Donat, John Dunsworth and Nicole De Boer.
  • Written By: Jim Dunn and Sam Ernst
  • Directed By: Madam Kane
  • Network: Syfy
  • Series:

Haven: Welcome to... Review

Small Towns in Maine Really Need to Be Avoided

By Rob Vaux     July 12, 2010


Haven Review
© Syfy/Bob Trate

 

The pilot for Haven aptly demonstrates both its modest strengths and its copious weaknesses. Its principal failing is that it doesn’t feel significantly different than Eureka, Warehouse 13 or any of Syfy’s other bastard X-Files stepchildren. Once again, we have a male-female law enforcement duo investigating weird happenings, a strange town harboring more than its share of secrets, and a series-premiere murder whose circumstances seem… odd. It shakes up the formula slightly by making the woman the non-skeptic, but those hoping for something new or different on their Friday nights had better keep looking.
 
On the plus side, the cast is appealing and while the direction doesn’t always do them justice, they at least sport some interesting traits. FBI Agent Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) arrives in a picturesque little Maine town in search of an escaped fugitive. He soon turns up dead, but whether he perished through misfortune or deliberate action has yet to be seen. Parker considers herself open to “alternate possibilities,” and as her investigation continues, she turns up quite a few. The town’s hunky policeman (Lucas Bryant) can’t feel physical pain, for example, while freak weather strikes the area anytime someone gets close to the local handyman.
 
“Welcome to Haven” has little interest in handing us the reasons for their abilities, or why so many of them would congregate in a single town. Presumably, we need to follow the series to find the answers, but the initial set-up fails to create that compelling spark. The characters are interesting, but perfunctory, and their soap-opera machinations do little more than grind the gears of the plot.
 
Haven does better in incorporating its heroine into the town’s overall mystery. An orphan and self-professed lone wolf, Parker initially just wants to get the job done. But a headline photo from the local newspaper morgue reveals a disturbing coincidence: someone involved in a long-ago murder case who bears an uncanny resemblance to her. It provides an elegant way of keeping her in town while creating another mystery to solve. It also proves more compelling than the “why is everyone here so weird” question, though the episode’s final moment suggests that the two enigmas may be closely related.
 
Director Adam Kane develops a good sense of intrigue, as well as a way of making this oddball little town seem plausible despite the plethora of kooks inhabiting it. The Nova Scotia settings display the proper amount of authenticity and the Stephen King roots show through agreeably in the atmosphere and characters. Unfortunately, too much of the episode remains too perfunctory to really enjoy. Most of it entails Parker and Bryan’s Detective Wuornos bickering agreeably with each other (been there, done that) while introducing the appropriately quirky supporting cast like livestock at an auction. It never sinks to truly dreadful levels, but Kane’s direction and the fitfully witty dialogue draw too much attention to Syfy’s other original shows, with which Haven has far too much in common.
 
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The setting is vaguely intriguing, the heroine has plenty of pluck, and some of the show’s questions merit the attention devoted to them. But despite King’s name circulating the project and a modicum of intelligence invested in the screenplay, it ultimately feels like a cookie cutter. The good reasons for tuning in fail to account for the plethora of better competitors out there (most of them on the same station). Syfy touted its “expanded” focus when it implemented that ridiculous name change last year. Though honorable in some ways, Haven merely shows how empty their boast really was.
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COMMENTS AND RESPONSES

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fatpantz 7/12/2010 2:18:54 AM

Have this one recorded still but havent found the time to watch it....damn you PS3!!! hahaha

Pretty shitty score from Rob, so i will try watch it in the next day and then leave my thoughts on it.

lusiphur 7/12/2010 6:04:38 AM

I didn't feel I wasted my time in watching it.  I actually caught the last 20 minutes on Friday and then taped the repeat on Bravo Sunday.  Finally watched the whole thing and am intrigued enough to give it my requisite 3-4 episodes to see where it is going.

I can't argue with anything Rob had to say, but I would have given it a B.

Good review Rob.

makabriel 7/12/2010 6:56:38 AM

 Yeah, to me it's a SyFy series with a Stephen King twist.  Would be just the same if King did a Warehouse 13 episode.

However, I'm liking it so far.  It's intriguing.  I think King's influence on the series may give it it's twist away from Eureka/ WH13.   And Rose is a looker, so the eye candy is enough to keep me watching for now ;).

 

karas1 7/12/2010 9:45:42 AM

I thought the season premier of Eureka which preceded it was vastly superior.  Still, a series premier has a lot of ground to cover.  I'll keep watching for a few weeks to see if it improves.

Chopsaki 7/12/2010 10:18:40 AM

I agree about all these series being cookie cutters but lets face it, there really isn't a whole hell of alot on right now. Mainly for that reason I'll keep tuning in at least for a few more episodes and see if this will be worth the time.

redhairs99 7/12/2010 1:21:58 PM

I really couldn't get that into this episode.  I will give a couple more episodes to see where it goes, but Kara is quite correct,  Eureka was heads-above this show.

animefanjared 7/12/2010 6:21:28 PM

I think we have unreasonable expectations for new series these days.  Current thinking seems to suggest that if the pilot isn't absolutely brilliant, the show should be avoided like the plague.  While I'm all for holding series to high standards, a pilot episode is by nature exposition heavy and therefore usually not the most interesting.  If you look back at things objectively, you will see that most of the genre shows (most TV shows in general, actually) now considered great didn't start out that way, sometimes taking a full season to reach the level of quality they are remembered for.

LOST completely threw the TV grading curve by producing one of the best pilot episodes ever (and I would say the pilot is still one of LOST's strongest episodes), to the point where we've forgotten that starting so strongly is very hard to do.  And the last major genre show that started out really strong was Heroes, and we all know how that turned out.

Moz72 7/12/2010 9:34:29 PM

Agree with you Rob,  Haven does have that cookie cutter feel to it, but I'll stick with it. Why is ScyFy putting on programming like Mary Knows Best?? They vying for the bored national enquirer reading housewife demographic?

gutsmgee 7/16/2010 4:26:52 AM

SyFy is in the middle of a programming change away from genre entertainment. Apparently you guys didn't see Avatar enough to warrant an exclusively science fiction channel. ;)

mac2j 7/16/2010 9:35:18 PM

Personally I thought it was better than Warehouse 13 .... better acting and better production value.

Since there isn't anything else on I can stand to watch this summer other than True Blood and 2/3rds of the regular shows I watched were cancelled I'll probably end up watching it...

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