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A Town Called |
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Jack Carter - Colin Ferguson Allison Blake - Salli Richardson-Whitfield Jo Lupo - Erica Cerra Henry Deacon - Joe Morton Douglas Fargo - Neil Grayston 
OTHER EUREKA SEASONS Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 4 OTHER SCI FI COMEDIES Chuck Red Dwarf Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy 3rd Rock From the Sun 
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LostThe missing Astraeus returns to Earth, but the faster than light travel has thrown the crew four years into the future. Eureka is under the control of the Andy robots and relationships are not what they once were. A TOWN CALLED EUREKA started off the last season by completely changing the terms of reference through time travel. It appears at first that this episode is going to do the same and it does a nice job of balancing the inherent personal drama of the situation with a standard EUREKA technobabble plot. It's funny and it's touching and it's just so damned good to see everyone back for their last outing, but the show isn't going to just rehash old triumphs and so the final reveal of the episode does fail to come as a surprise. TopThe Real ThingWhilst trying to come to terms with the missing four years of their lives, they begin to notice that all is not what it seems in the town. Elsewhere, Carter and Andy find themselves in trouble whilst trying to build a locating machine. Now that the cat is out of the bag regarding the Astreus crew being in a computer simulation, it is time to have some fun with the idea and thus is born the dragon. The main failure is Jo's walkabout, which is rudely interrupted before it ever got anywhere. Having come up with the idea, the writers don't seem to know what to do with it and so abandon it at the first opportunity. TopForce QuitA surprise visitor offers to help save the crew of the Astreus, but the attempt to save them may leave Carter's mind trapped in the machine. There are some great effects in this episode as the matrix effect starts to fail and Carter is given a number of awkward situations in which he has to play the 'bad Carter' and convince people not to hurt him. The big surprise is that the show pulls a hard shock out of the bag with no warning. Didn't see that coming. TopFriendly FireA semi-intelligent ball of fire escapes from the research lab and wreaks havoc, whilst the returned Astreus crew find their own emotions running a little hot. It is to the credit of A TOWN CALLED EUREKA that some of the events of the show have consequences that run and run and events inside the matrix simulation are certainly taking their continuing toll on the people of Eureka. The whole fireball thing, however, is EUREKA by the numbers. TopJack Of All TradesAllison, Zane and Jo are all having difficulties with the knowledge that the matrix simulation paired off Carter and Jo as a couple. When Carter starts body-swapping at inconvenient moments, those feelings are just made worse. Bodyswap episodes are usually fun for the actors and the audience as they watch the actors play each other with all their little idiosyncrasies. This episode goes one better by doing all of that, but putting it in a plot that is just laugh out loud funny (Carter just can't stop find himself in situations where Jo is naked), but also has a core of emotional truth about it as well. This is easily the best episode of the season so far and shows once again just how good A TOWN CALLED EUREKA can be. TopWorse Case ScenarioA computerised disaster drill is run to test GD's reactions, but the computer decides to take it all a bit too seriously. Things are about to blow up so much in this episode that it is hard to take any of it seriously, but then this is A TOWN CALLED EUREKA and taking it seriously has never been at the forefront of the show's success. What this episode does, however, is to flip a bad scenario on its head and give back a little hope to Fargo. Cute and fluffy is what A TOWN CALLED EUREKA does best. TopEx-MachinaOn the day of Holly's remembrance service, the DoD decide to wipe the matrix machine's memory, destroying Holly's program forever. It's obvious what's happening here from as soon as the mystery malfunctions start. This undermines any sense of surprise or threat from really emerging, but there is still more than enough EUREKA wit and charm to keep things moving. Plus, for a moment, it seems like EUREKA's going to forego the fuzzy warm feelings and give us a hard-edge ending for a change. This, though is A TOWN CALLED EUREKA and we should have known better. We don't mind a bit, though. TopIn Too DeepJack thinks that Allison is starting to get cold feet about the wedding, so he engineers a romantic lunch aboard a submersible laboratory just as a malfunction sends it plunging beyond its operating depth. This is a very disappointing episode of a A TOWN CALLED EUREKA in which the vital charm and wit are sadly missing and so we are left with a bunch of plot machinations that don't quite work. Nobody thinks to launch the safety bubble straight away, the transporter device is the obvious solution, the DNA tracker makes no scientific sense at all. None of this would have mattered had the show's funny bone been fully engaged, but this is more of a relationship drama than a fun comedy. TopSmarter CarterAllison's brother is in town to check up on the new bridegroom when Carter suddenly becomes the smartest man in town, but loses his loveable charm, and his unwillingness not to hurt people. The continuing struggle to bring Holly back from the dead is a background story that is really no story and is becoming more and more tedious, surprisingly. How many times Fargo is going to have to change personality to fit the storylines remains an issue. Unfortunately, it also takes up too much of the time that ought to have been dedicated to the Smarter Carter storyline that isn't given time to be as funny as it should be, nor as touching. This is Flowers For Algernon territory after all. TopThe HoneymoonersJack takes Allison to a suprise destination for their honeymoon. Some information comes to light about spies in Eureka and Holly finally has a body again, but the brain isn't quite as it should be. The three storylines going on in this episode of A TOWN CALLED EUREKA don't mesh at all and the focus seems to be on all the wrong things. Jack and Allison's disastrous honeymoon is the main story, but it's really flimsy and meaningless in the long run. Considering that Holly is tottering on the brink of death (what, again?) and there is a revelation that is going to rock Henry's world, these should have been a little more prominent and a lot more interesting. TopMirror, MirrorThe newly-resurrected Holly is taken over by a secret signal and starts to literally build an army of doubles with the flesh printer, all whilst the town's law enforcement is distracted by a reflective smart dust. The end of the season, and the show, are in sight and A TOWN CALLED EUREKA has reshaped itself once again, by leaping into a multi-episode arc that will take us to the end. This makes it a set up episode and more dramatic than the funny charming nonsense that we have loved for so long. That makes it all a bit more generic than it deserves to be and we can only hope that the pay off will be worth the loss of identity. TopDouble TakeThe evil clones are taking over the whole town and putting everyone back into the Matrix machine. Can the few remaining survivors find a solution before everyone is taken? Yes, it's INVASION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS as done by A TOWN CALLED EUREKA. Unfortunately, as the clones are all evil, there isn't an awful lot of the show's trademark wit to go around and the emphasis is on the action and the suspense. This would be fine if it hadn't been done by many other shows before. This is the penultimate episode and it leaves the show with only one last chance to go out on a high. Top |
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