Even when the US version is good in its own right, the foreign version is usually better - and sadly, this ELEVENTH HOUR is far from good:
- The UK's Dr. Ian Hood (Patrick Stewart) is a grumpy retired widower physicist and science adviser for the British Government. He's brilliant but hardly omniscient, opinionated, so irritating to all sides of the political spectrum and thoughtless about his own safety that he's assigned a Special Branch bodyguard, and lost outside the areas of his expertise - his bodyguard, for instance, has to show him how to log onto a hotel's wifi connection!
The US's Dr. Jacob Hood (Rufus Sewell) is a soulfully hunky widower professor of "Science" in his early Forties who is brilliant about everything the show requires him to be brilliant about, always right no matter what, and lacking in any discernible personality.
- The UK's Rachel Young (Ashley Jensen) is moderately good-looking and working-class tough, and serves as Dr. Hood's Special Branch bodyguard, driver and all-around keeper. She always goes into any room first and checks to make sure it's safe, scolds Hood when he does something risky, and keeps an eye out for problems. She's a combination of street-smart, warily respectful of his intelligence and loyal to his purpose, yet often exasperated at his personality quirks and clearly wishing her job was something other than babysitting a brilliant and energetic old grouch.
The US's Rachel Young is portrayed by the drop-dead gorgeous Marley Shelton, unconvincingly playing a tomboyish FBI Special Agent. I've liked Ms. Shelton in other parts, but her character makes no sense here since this Hood seems too self-sufficient to need her - she's reduced to mainly flashing her (fake-looking) FBI ID, occasionally shooting at or punching someone, and listening to Hood show off how brilliant he is. The US pilot (which I missed) apparently mentions Rachel is Hood's FBI-assigned security detail, but that's never followed up in subsequent episodes.
Ms. Shelton has the misfortune of looking far too porcelain-skinned and perfectly-coiffed to be believable as written - which is where the real problem lies, since Ms. Shelton has proved elsewhere she can be both a stunner and tough as nails. It would be easy for the writers to acknowledge and play off that dichotomy, as Robert Rodriguez did in the "Planet Terror" half of GRINDHOUSE - except that the US writers don't seem aware there's a problem. The US version also veers wildly back and forth regarding Rachel's relationship with Hood - one moment she needs to have the plot explained to her, the next she's the skeptical crack investigator, the next she's mildly irritated by Hood's barely-discernible eccentricities...and the next, the two of them are making goo-goo eyes at each other and flirting!
- The UK Hood's adviser with a roving brief to deal with abuses of cutting-edge science feels realistic enough to work in the context of the show, with believable office politics and bureaucracy for the characters to deal with. The writing, while not immune to the occasional "Huh?" moment, is generally good with decent plotting, interesting character development and witty dialogue. The science may be a bit "day after tomorrow", but its presented in such a way as to make you believe that if it's not actually being worked on, the steps leading up to it certainly are. Maybe I'm being suckered by Patrick Stewart's acting, but I found myself at least able to accept the four-part UK series as being within the outer realm of possibility.
The US version, by contrast, feels like several disjointed parts of a premise stuck together with duct tape and Superglue. Hood got his "FBI Science Adviser" gig where he never has to report in or justify his expenses, and gets Rachel as a permanent sidekick, b/c the current Director is an old college buddy of his? Hood and Rachel are often left completely on their own to solve the episode's science problems whatever facilities they can commandeer, and Rachel's All-Powerful fake-looking FBI ID and 9mm automatic, without being required to call on the vast resources of the DoJ or Homeland Security? (This has improved some in later episodes, with Rachel occasionally calling on Bureau resources.) Rachel never has to fill out any forms to justify the times she's fired her weapon or used physical force, or even fill out an expense report? The science in the US version, except in those episodes which are rewrites of the UK series, feels like Right-Wing error-riddled Voodoo pseudoscience. Even when the science might be plausible, it's treated in a ham-handed manner that feels fake - a fact not helped by dialogue and characterizations that tend towards the obvious and clichéd. I'm more inclined to believe the "off-the-map superscience" of J.J. Abrams' FRINGE than the cutting-edge but supposedly possible contemporary science here.
In recent episodes, the writers have introduced Omar Benson Miller as Agent Felix Lee - a large, overeager, ill-dressed, Comic Relief Black Guy. I don't expect every Black person on television to be Barack Obama or Denzel Washington - but please, don't make him a lumbering sweaty joke next to two well-dressed White people.
So the US version is a poorly-written show with bad science, lame dialogue and characterizations, without even any of the CSI razzle-dazzle to make it seem all "sciencey!" I wish that, instead of selling the rights to Jerry Bruckheimer, Grenada Television had simply asked him to co-produce more episodes of the British show - because I'd gladly watch more Patrick Stewart running around England being all purposeful and cranky, whereas the US version just makes me tired, and insults my intelligence.
