NETWORK: CBS
AIR DATE: October 9, 2008
STARRING: Rufus Sewell and Marley Shelton
CREATED BY: Mick Davis

Episodes 1.1-2 - "Resurrection" and "Cardiac"

Despite strong performances from the two leads and the kind of production value that Jerry Bruckheimer brings to everything he touches, The Eleventh Hour feels a bit too much like shows we've seen before to become a breakout hit. Honestly, Eleventh Hour could just as easily have been called "CSI: X-Files". Clearly inspired by the procedural shows that have been cash cows for CBS, Eleventh Hour fails to transcend its familiar setup in the first two episodes, both of which come off like variations on well-played tunes. Perhaps it is because Fringe beat them to the punch when it comes to airdates (although that show certainly isn't working well either), but the writers of Eleventh Hour need to do something quickly to set their show apart from the crowded herd. Only strong performances from two consistent actors - Rufus Sewell and Marley Shelton - gives the viewer the hint that maybe the show could develop into something interesting down the road but it's going to take some work.

Sewell plays Jacob Hood, who could easily be called a combination of Adrian Monk and Fox Mulder, in Eleventh Hour. The overly eccentric Hood swoops in when mysterious cases involving science gone out of control rear their head. In a world of cloning and chemical warfare, the DNA-collecting teams of CSI are not always enough. Sometimes you need someone willing to look at a case from another angle and Hood definitely sees things that other detectives do not. Hood's wrangler/partner - she keeps his eccentricities in check as much as helps him solve mysteries - is Rachel Young, played by the tragically underused Marley Shelton. Marley was so great in Grindhouse last year and I keep hoping she'll break out and become a star, but it's not likely to be in Eleventh Hour. Young is a character that we've seen literally a hundred times before and she's playing second fiddle to Sewell too often in the first two episodes of Eleventh Hour. They seem to have forgotten that X-Files worked because Scully was just as interesting as Mulder and arguably more so. The first thing that needs to happen if Eleventh Hour is going to work is to make Young a more viable foil to Hood.

The first two episodes of The Eleventh Hour focus on dying or dead children. It's unclear if that's a coincidence or if the writers will continue to spin mysteries around how new science is affecting the next generation above other themes. The first episode, "Resurrection", is the stronger of the two sent to critics (and CBS clearly recognized that too, replacing the original pilot with this chapter that was originally supposed to air later). Hood is well-introduced with a case that opens with 19 dead fetuses. The catch is that the fetuses have the same DNA. Someone is trying to clone a human. Sewell and Shelton are good here and the case is interesting - even if the action-packed ending is silly - but the second episode, "Cardiac", about a bunch of small town kids having unexplained heart attacks, is a true snoozer. Even Sewell and Shelton seem to be getting tired. It's too early for that. Unless they do something quick to make The Eleventh Hour stand apart from the shows that clearly inspired it, I imagine audiences will grow tired themselves after much fewer than eleven episodes.