A few months ago, I decided to give this show a chance. I lost interest almost immediately and actually stopped watching after only five episodes, so my response may not be the most accurate description, for all I know, the show kicked up after those five episodes, but for me, it already was doomed to fail, and I was not in the least bit surprised when it was canceled. Now, I like procedurals, so my opinion isn't based on the idea that it should have been a more serialized drama. However, there are ways that procedurals can be good, but Chase had too many flaws for that to ever happen.
Flaw #1: The plot structure
The structure itself was nice in that the show wasn't a 'whodunit' kind of show, rather it let you know exactly who was being hunted and even showed scenes with the villain throughout the entire show, which, I'll admit is a nice change from the norm. However, where this failed was the way the supposed villains were written. With the exception of two episodes, the villains were actually written in a good light. They were three dimensional characters that—while they did horrible things—they had a good heart in different ways. The episode that really brought this to light was the fifth episode, "Above the Law." By the end of the episode, I was actually annoyed with the Marshalls for arresting the bad guy. Actually, on more than one occasion, I felt like I was rooting for the bad guy to win, which is not really a tactic a crime procedural should take. Unless, of course the point of the show was to make the bad guys the real heroes of the show, in which case it did a pretty decent job at that.
Flaw #2: Annie Frost
Annie was probably the least likable character on the show, and given the fact that she was actually the main character, that's not a good thing. But probably the biggest problems with Annie was that A.) she was unrealistically good and always seemed to manage to take down the bad guy single-handedly, but B.) She was too reckless. In one episode, for example, her team is in the middle of a shootout with an incredibly dangerous killer. She sees him stop to reload his weapon. Common sense tells me that what she should have done was tell her team to move in, guns drawn and ready to shoot, before he has the chance to finish. If he doesn't, shoot him. Nobody would miss him. But instead, she puts her gun away and charges him to duke it out. It was incredibly reckless and could have gotten herself killed, and in the long run, could very well get her team killed. That is not a character trait you want your lead character to have. And what makes the whole situation is that her partner calls her out on it. But instead of actually listening to him, she accuses him of planning to tell the team about her father, or some other bull crap, I honestly lost interest in that storyline relatively quickly (which is actually the third flaw). Despite the fact that he told her on numerous occasions that his problems weren't about her father and, in fact, about her death wish, she kept going back to her same argument, which just makes her even more unlikeable. It also brings us to;
Flaw #3: Annie's father storyline
The difference between procedurals—and even character driven procedurals—and character dramas is that the fundamental plot of the procedural is to solve the case, whether it be finding a murderer or finding out what's wrong with a medical patient, while a character drama pretty much tells the story of the characters. As such, the dramas can shove a lot of back-story into the characters from the get go and get away with it, they are, after all, the main purpose to the story. With a crime procedural, the audience doesn't have to know everything about the character from the start, but it can be gradually included over time. We know who the characters are, what they do and how they act and as the story goes on, we get better acquainted with the whys: Why they do what they do and why they act the way they act, etc. But with Chase, Annie's back-story with her father is used as a subplot throughout just about every episode (at least the ones I saw) to the point that I didn't care anymore. I didn't know the character enough to be that invested in her back-story, and I didn't even like her enough to care about how bad it was. Quite honestly, the fact that the argument with her partner, Jimmy (played by Cole Hauser who was actually pretty likable in this show), somehow managed to revolve around her father just enforced my problems. It was like the show-runners wanted people to be aware of Annie's daddy issues and wanted us to sympathize with her, but in reality, it just made her look dumb. The whole plot line was so contrived and forced upon us. I actually tried to watch the sixth episode and ended up turning it off after five minutes and never turned it back on, strictly because of this plot point.
Chase, I imagine could have worked, but these major flaws pretty much guaranteed that it wouldn't last.
Flaw #1: The plot structure
The structure itself was nice in that the show wasn't a 'whodunit' kind of show, rather it let you know exactly who was being hunted and even showed scenes with the villain throughout the entire show, which, I'll admit is a nice change from the norm. However, where this failed was the way the supposed villains were written. With the exception of two episodes, the villains were actually written in a good light. They were three dimensional characters that—while they did horrible things—they had a good heart in different ways. The episode that really brought this to light was the fifth episode, "Above the Law." By the end of the episode, I was actually annoyed with the Marshalls for arresting the bad guy. Actually, on more than one occasion, I felt like I was rooting for the bad guy to win, which is not really a tactic a crime procedural should take. Unless, of course the point of the show was to make the bad guys the real heroes of the show, in which case it did a pretty decent job at that.
Flaw #2: Annie Frost
Annie was probably the least likable character on the show, and given the fact that she was actually the main character, that's not a good thing. But probably the biggest problems with Annie was that A.) she was unrealistically good and always seemed to manage to take down the bad guy single-handedly, but B.) She was too reckless. In one episode, for example, her team is in the middle of a shootout with an incredibly dangerous killer. She sees him stop to reload his weapon. Common sense tells me that what she should have done was tell her team to move in, guns drawn and ready to shoot, before he has the chance to finish. If he doesn't, shoot him. Nobody would miss him. But instead, she puts her gun away and charges him to duke it out. It was incredibly reckless and could have gotten herself killed, and in the long run, could very well get her team killed. That is not a character trait you want your lead character to have. And what makes the whole situation is that her partner calls her out on it. But instead of actually listening to him, she accuses him of planning to tell the team about her father, or some other bull crap, I honestly lost interest in that storyline relatively quickly (which is actually the third flaw). Despite the fact that he told her on numerous occasions that his problems weren't about her father and, in fact, about her death wish, she kept going back to her same argument, which just makes her even more unlikeable. It also brings us to;
Flaw #3: Annie's father storyline
The difference between procedurals—and even character driven procedurals—and character dramas is that the fundamental plot of the procedural is to solve the case, whether it be finding a murderer or finding out what's wrong with a medical patient, while a character drama pretty much tells the story of the characters. As such, the dramas can shove a lot of back-story into the characters from the get go and get away with it, they are, after all, the main purpose to the story. With a crime procedural, the audience doesn't have to know everything about the character from the start, but it can be gradually included over time. We know who the characters are, what they do and how they act and as the story goes on, we get better acquainted with the whys: Why they do what they do and why they act the way they act, etc. But with Chase, Annie's back-story with her father is used as a subplot throughout just about every episode (at least the ones I saw) to the point that I didn't care anymore. I didn't know the character enough to be that invested in her back-story, and I didn't even like her enough to care about how bad it was. Quite honestly, the fact that the argument with her partner, Jimmy (played by Cole Hauser who was actually pretty likable in this show), somehow managed to revolve around her father just enforced my problems. It was like the show-runners wanted people to be aware of Annie's daddy issues and wanted us to sympathize with her, but in reality, it just made her look dumb. The whole plot line was so contrived and forced upon us. I actually tried to watch the sixth episode and ended up turning it off after five minutes and never turned it back on, strictly because of this plot point.
Chase, I imagine could have worked, but these major flaws pretty much guaranteed that it wouldn't last.
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