"Leviathan"
Airdate: October 15, 1999
How doth Harsh Realm suck? Let me count the ways.
Let's start with the dialogue, shall we? If I have to hear another Chris Carter penned voice over or a series of incredibly pretentious monologues I am going to have to be sedated and put in leather restraints lest I lead a one woman commando team down to the 1013 Productions offices and put some people out of my misery. And the bits that didn't sound like the ramblings of some Thesaurus addicted squirrel? Oy. I winced in sympathy for the poor actors who were expected to deliver this drek and try to make it believable.
"My girl", "their girl", "I'm pregnant." Somebody pass me a barf bag.
Samantha Mathis (Sophie Green) is simply one of the worst actresses I've ever had the misfortune to try and sit down to watch. Whether it's her impassive face or her stilted delivery, I've still not pinned down the exact reason I'm going to use when writing to ask that her SAG card be recalled. Okay, so I can't blame her for the fact that the character of Sophie represents a gazillion steps backwards in the progression of women's roles on television (that's Chris Carter's fault), but she can't even seem to muster the energy to appear emotionally stable or strong.
What drives her on? Besides her love for Tom, I mean. What makes her the love of Hobbes' life? Why should I give a squirrel's furry behind what happens to her? In Mathis' hands Sophie, an already weak character, is as flimsy as the one-ply you find in gas station bathrooms.
Plot? We don' need no steenkin' plot development!
Okay, so VC's have no concept of an afterlife and therefore no inner moral compass, Hobbes is back to diggin' on his dog, and Sophie's pregnant. Big whoopee do.
If these virtual people have no inner moral compass then why do they resist Santiago's Fascist Disneyland? Will Hobbes change his mind about his dog next week and finally allow Pinnochio to eat the little guy? If Sophie gives birth will her child be as boring and as insipid as she is? I could live a long and happy life without knowing the answers to these questions.
And finally, someone needs to be hurt for making the ultra-cool Terry O'Quinn be in this farce. My choice? Chris Carter.
Harsh Realm was seen Fridays at 9pm on Fox.
-- Linda M. Najera
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