TV review: Human Target

Take a bunch of high-concept ’80s action TV shows (e.g., the A-Team, The Equalizer, MacGyver) and mix them together with some genre action movies (James Bond, Die Hard), throw in a good cast and some decent effects and stunts, stir with with the depth and sensibilities of a comic book and what do you have? A pretty decent show. Entertaining enough, certainly, provided you can turn your brain off and enjoy the ride.

I kind of like it.

The Cast – top notch. Chi McBride is always great. I like Mark Valley, who played a supporting role on Fringe’s first season (and married co-star Anna Torv), a lot and think he’s well-cast as Christopher Chance. Jackie Earle Haley is good too, having recently resurrected his career with an Academy Award nomination and a stint as The Watchmen’s Rorschach.

The Plots – ridiculously over-the-top, stretching all logic and violating basic science in the name of fun and profit. In this week’s episode, Chance decided that he needed to turn a airliner upside-down so that he could increase the airflow through the bottom section of the plane to put out a fire “like blowing out candles on a birthday cake.” I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t work. In fact, I’m sure that would just stoke the fire more so that you’d end up with a giant fireball in no time. On Sunday’s episode, in less than ten seconds, Chance made a make-shift parachute out of some tarps and seat-belts and used them to jump out of a bullet train speeding at 200 miles an hour through a tunnel. Yeah. And yet, this show has sort of a guilty-pleasure, retro feel to it that makes it seem worthwhile–sort of like ironic fast food. I didn’t realize it was based on a comic book until I saw the DC credit at the end, but now I know, it makes a lot of sense. If you are the type of person who likes to find plot holes you will either: 1) hate this show because it defies common sense in every way; or 2) love this show because you will be constantly busy finding new and preposterous things to critique.

The Production Values – pretty good so far. They are somewhere between top-flight ’80s action movie and a recent direct-to-video feature film. Lots of stunts and stuff blowing up, lots of fights and mortal peril, good deadpan humor and the requisite glib one-liners. (If anything, the show should work on maybe being a little bit more tongue-in-cheek, which would be easier if the score wasn’t quite so solemn and serious.)

Human Target could lose me, but so far, I’ve been entertained. Each episode is its own self-contained story, so nothing here requires much of an investment. At most, you may find yourself craving handfuls of popcorn and mouthfuls of soda.