ABC has yet another new show? Forever. Ugh, I guess I'll review it. It's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.
Forever opens with a shot of modern day New York, with a voice over from its protagonist, Henry Morgan (Ioan Gruffudd), letting us know that he's got tons of time on his hands, and then checks his pocket watch.
Henry hops onto a subway car and starts chatting up a pretty blonde lady. He deduces that she's Russian from a chocolate smudge, accurately guesses that she plays the cello, and that she is on her way to a performance. His first words to her are in Russian! Talk about confidence!
Russian lady realizes that no man will ever be better, and invites him to her recital, then to drinks. The train flies off the tracks, and everyone dies. Everyone except Henry.
OK, you have my attention.
Through voice over, we are brought 200 years into the past to learn about Henry's origins. We see the exterior of a ship at sea. Cut to inside, and Henry is there checking the vitals of a man. It looks like he's rocking the same pocket watch.
The Captain seems to think that the person that Henry is checking out has Cholera, and should be shot and killed before it spreads. Henry assures him that is is only a fever, but the Captain doesn't care. He pulls his gun, and Henry refuses to let them take the man's life. The Captain shoots him point blank.
Henry lets us know that "something happened" that night, and we see his corpse floating in the ocean, then cutting to him in the subway wreck. Through some sort of magic (which I hope is never further revealed), Henry was made immortal, and is reborn in the Atlantic Ocean, right off of the coast of New York City. We see his scar from his gunshot on his chest when he emerges naked from the water.
His friend Abe (Judd Hirsch) picks him up at the police station, and is the only one who knows his secret. According to the voice over, "fate" brought them together.
Now we see a lady creeping out of an apartment building and getting into her car. A man follows her out and says that they switched phones, and that he'd like the relationship to continue. He mentions that, in looking through her phone, she might be cheating on a significant other, and that he'd be happy being the new man in her life. She brushes the dude off, then turns on some police lights and drives away in her car.
Upon arriving at the subway crash, she is introduced as Detective Martinez (Alana De La Garza). A wormy dude, Detective Hanson (Donnie Keshwarz), starts giving her the rundown on the crash. Sifting through the wreckage, Martinez finds Henry's pocket watch and takes an interest in it. The two detectives learn that the crash was because the conductor died, are informed that they need to check with the medical examiner to make sure there was no foul play. Fourteen people died on that train, and they don't want it to be manslaughter.
Abe is chuckling about how Henry's never died in a train crash before. They enter some sort of curio shop, and Henry opens a secret trap door and enters his "death lab."
This is where Henry studies death. He assures us that it isn't a "macabre obsession, but purely for research," because he wants to die. Apparently, he works for the New York City Medical Examiner's office. This is where he studies death.
Henry goes into the ME's office, where he meets with Lucas (Joel David Moore), and they start looking over the subway conductor. Possible heart attack. Detective Martinez arrive for some info on the crash, and Henry, while dropping his pimp game on her, figures out that her husband has passed away, and that she has been drinking a lot lately.
Henry calls the conductor's death a poisoning. Lucas lets everyone know that Henry can sometimes figure out people's deaths without even cutting them open.
Henry gets a call from a breathy dude, asking, "Dr. Morgan, how did you survive that subway crash?"
The creeper goes on to say that he's been searching for someone like Henry for a long time. Henry is not amused.
Rushing home, Henry packs a go bag and lets Abe know that he's going into hiding until his stalker is dead. Abe says Henry needs to fight it out, and stop hiding when things get tough. Apparently, Henry runs away whenever a big problem shows up. Henry says it won't be too long, but Abe reminds him that he's old, and probably won't be alive when Henry re-emerges. Abe declares that they need to confront the problem, and Henry lets him know that, in the past, people have tortured him, prodded him and hung him. Abe tells him to live for once. Henry decides to stick it out.
Detective Martinez is reviewing footage from the subway tunnel, and sees Henry with the pocket watch getting onto the train. He is now a suspect.
I am obsessed with the idea of immortality in a crime show. It seems like in the last ten years, the networks have been trying to get the concept to stick (New Amsterdam, Moonlight, and now Forever), but something always doesn't fit for me.
With Forever, I'm kind of bummed that they threw in the immortality origin as some sort of "magic kindness."
Also, the fact that when our hero dies, he pops out of the ocean off of the coast of New York? What? What if he was in Chicago, and he got hit by a car? Would he then have to go all the way back to New York? Seems kind of stupid to me.
Half of the fun of ideas like this are the mysteries behind it. Already I am put off by the magic of their plot device, and it is only the first episode.
There is also Henry's knowledge of everything and great detective skills. Maybe, if he is thousands of years old, I'd get it, but he's only supposed to be 200 years old. I'm 36, and I can barely notice that my fly is down, and I don't think that would change in 200 years if I was magically made immortal. It is a cool touch, but I wish they could have established that aspect of him as something he's always been good at, not simply being old. My Grandfather was old, and the only thing he ever noticed were men with long hair and when his beer was empty.
I know I'm dumping all over it, but I'll probably stick with it for a few weeks, because other than the MacGuffin, it wasn't "bad." I was entertained, and as you all know, I think that most pilot episodes are made for people who've never watched TV before in their lives, so they are usually bad.
So maybe I'll like it, but maybe I'll just have to accept that, if I want an amazing immortal cop show, I should just make it myself. "This Spring on TBS, don't miss the hit new show, Immortal Cops. With C. Thomas Howell and Rae Dawn Chong together again, you won't want to miss it!"
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