Aquarius opens with great promise and a few surprises.
Here is our review of Everybody’s Been Burned.
seems as if NBC is trying to enter the supernatural sleuth series action like HBOsTrue Detective.
Manson scares the shit out of people to this day.
Aquariusisnt about the murders that made Manson famous, though.
It is a cop procedural that takes place in the Helter Skelter atmosphere that surrounded his universe.
That means sex, drugs, rock and roll and a bit of the old ultra-violence.
NBC is pulling out all the stops to make this a relevant piece of homicidal debauchery.
Hodiaks establishing shot is hitting a heavy bag, so we know hes tough.
Duchovny brings the weight of his past to a role that needs gravitas.
He was, after all, the spooky Fox Mulder onThe X-Files.
So the audience is already promised that things are going to get weird.
Duchovny also didCalifornicationfor Showtime.
So the audience also knows things can get pretty sexy.
But how far NBC will go remains to be seen.
Without spoiling too much, I saw the first few episodes and they will push a few parameters.
NBC brings a certain online grid blandness toAquarius.
This may work as the story progresses.
Not on NBC, where magical magnetism is still taboo.
Meanwhile, the Sunset Strip is under siege as cops throw anything beaded into paddy wagons.
Hodiak is called in on a case by old friends.
A lawyer and his wife who have a past with the hard-ass LA cop.
He serves the rich.
Emma Karn, played by Emma Dumont ofBunheads, the daughter of the couple, has gone missing.
The mother Grace (Michaela McManus) is beside herself.
The father, Ken Karn (Brian F. OByrne), not so much.
His buzz cut is piled too high on top and he can tell a Martin guitar from a knockoff.
Claire Holt plays patrolwoman Charmain Tully, an able and very willing young cop eager for new assignments.
Miranda rights are still new and LAs big blue line dont seem to have a problem circumventing it already.
The show is a little dense.
This will be a procedural with a few monsters getting booked while the Manson surveillance continues.
The show also shows people smoking dope and enjoying it.
Even the narc is getting high from his own supply and promises that things will get weird.
The show ends on a double whammy for me.
Besides the more-than-implied sexual assault in the garage, we also have to endure Wayne Newton singing Danke Shoen.
Everybodys Been Burned was written by John McNamara and directed by Jonas Pate.
Rating:
3.5 out of 5
