Ringer: Pilot

Boy, mirrors seem to come up a lot. That was one of my thoughts after finishing watching the pilot to Ringer (which technically doesn't air in Canada until Friday, but thanks to the internet, I can watch it the same days Americans can.), which marks the return of Sarah Michelle Gellar to TV (in a regular role) for the first time since Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended, as well as the return of Nestor Carbonell (who portrayed the mysterious, ageless, Richard Alpert on Lost). So how was it? Well, it was definitely interesting.

Before we go any further into my feelings though, a brief synopsis is in order. Usually, I'd probably go in-depth-, but since it hasn't aired in the country where most of my readers are bound to be from and since, I don't expect those people to watch it online in advance, like I did, I'll keep it mostly spoiler-free (I'll only repeat what information was available about the show, prior to the pilot.). So here we go:

Sarah Michelle Gellars plays Bridget, a former stripper and recovering drug addict, who is also the key witness in a violent mob-related crime. Shortly before she's set to testify, she gets scared, escapes from her handler (played by Nestor Carbonell) and runs off to the Hamptons where she reunites with her estranged twin sister (also played by Sarah Michelle Gellar) Siobahn, who is much better off than her sister and seemingly has a perfect life (Do I even have to say it turns out to be as complicated as Bridgets?). While catching up, they go boating. While things are going well, Bridget falls asleep, and when she wakes up, she finds Siobahn has vanished, and has seemingly committed suicide. As she's the only one who knows Siobahn is missing, and since Siobahn hasn't told anyone in her life that her sister is visiting or that she even has a sister, Bridget decides to assume her sister's identity, only telling her AA sponsor Malcolm what she has done. She soon however finds... her sister's life is just as complicated as her own.

Siobahn's relationship with her husband is distant, her stepdaughter hates her, and she's having an affair... with her best friend's husband. Oh and, by the end of the episode she sees Siobahn's life is also as dangerous as her own. There's a few other twists and turns in there, that I won't spoil. Let's just say, that there's definitely enough intrigue and mystery in there to keep people interested. At the very least, there's enough to keep me interested. But how do I feel about the actual episode?

Well, as I mentioned before, so far, the show is interesting. The pilot definitely sets up a lot. For the most part though, I was able to keep track of everything that was going on. As far as acting goes, Sarah Michelle Gellar gets the most to do. As someone who watched the entirety of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and Angel) for the first time over the course of the past year and loved her in that, this is very welcome and she pulls off being two different people quite well. The other characters are all fairly interesting. I can only assume that they'll get a chance to make more of an impression in future episodes. The show has a whole is definitely kind of soap opera type feel to it, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as long as they get the right tone. The episode definitely has flaws though. A lot of Bridget's choices aren't that well explained, which is kind of annoying especially because these choices set the series in motion. By the end of the episode, the constant use of mirrors got kind of old. And the tone was a little too serious, especially with the ridiculousness of it all.

But even with those problems, it was still pretty good. I enjoyed it most of the time and will definitely keep watching. I'll also keep posting about the show at least for now, but I'll probably post my recaps after the Canadian airing from here on out, so I can go more in-depth about the happenings of each episode. So bottom line, if you're a fan of SMG, or twisty television, you should probably check this out. It's shaping up to be a good time.

Grade: Enjoyable Enough (Pretty Good)

Memorable Moments:

-Don't have many of these this week because I'm being spoiler-free, but the last moments are pretty intriguing, if not surprising.

-Also most of the people on the show are very good-looking.

-Not much for Nestor Carbonell this week, but I have high hopes for him, because I loved him in Lost (Speaking of shows like Lost and Buffy, I could probably do a whole other blog on the history of my TV-watching experience, where I go in-depth on my emotions watching these shows and how they impacted my life. I may even post about that occasionally on this blog.)

-So that's my first recap of the Fall TV season. Stay tuned for my opinions on tonight's debuts of Survivor: South Pacific, and Up All Night!