daniel cohen looks at Sarah Michelle Gellar’s return to television …
Plot: Bridget (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is a recovering addict and the only witness to a murder perpetrated by a powerful crime lord (Zahn McClarnon). The night before she’s supposed to testify, Bridget flees the police and joins her wealthy twin sister Siobhan who she hasn’t spoken to in years. When Siobhan commits suicide, Bridget takes her identity, but the deeper she goes, Siobhan’s hidden ugly life begins to unfold and collide with Bridget head on.
So if Sarah Michelle Gellar is playing two roles in this pilot, does she get paid twice? Just an interesting question I thought I’d throw out there before getting into Ringer, the new CW series starring the one and only Sarah Michelle Gellar. It’s basically about a self-destructive woman who takes on the identity of her more destructive twin sister. If I had a twin I would certainly mess around with people, but this is taking it too far.
The biggest problem I have with this show is that the idea can’t be sustained for an entire series. Bridget is the main character, and she takes on the life of Siobhan. It’s established that Siobhan never told anyone about Bridget. Now Siobhan has a husband (Ioan Gruffud), a step daughter (Zoey Deutch), a best friend (Tara Summers) she sees constantly, and many others she interacts with on a daily basis. There’s no way these people won’t eventually be suspicious of her behavior and actions. Now granted Siobhan’s wealthy husband Andrew seems like a huge moron, but even he suspects something is odd when they first see each other. Certainly this is only the pilot, and maybe sooner rather than later, Bidget will be exposed, although isn’t this the whole gimmick of the show? So once that’s gone, it loses a lot of its luster.
I also don’t buy how all this gets started. It’s established early on that Bridget is a recovering addict with a self-destructive personality. But the night before she’s going to testify against this criminal, she bails? I get she’s afraid this guy will find and kill her, but you’ve stuck with the police this long. Why run now?
Gellar carries the whole thing on her back. She’s very good at conveying how this character knows she’s getting in deeper and deeper, but you can see it in her face that she just can’t stop herself. It’s only the pilot, but I don’t see any other remotely interesting characters. It’s just her. Nestor Carbonell (Lost, The Dark Knight) plays the cop who’s assigned to protect Bridget, and he’s got a good presence on screen. But I think this is me identifying more with the actor because I love his previous work, and not so much the character.
Aside from Gellar’s performance, the most intriguing element to this one episode is learning how ugly Bridget’s twin sister’s life is. She comes off as truly detestable. She also has a huge picture of herself in her lavish New York apartment. It’s staring you right in the face when you walk in. Now that’s just annoying. It’s really easy to hate this person despite the fact that she’s not even present. Siobhan’s life unfolding is really the hook of the show so far. It also made for a couple interesting twists that are clichés, but catch you off guard nonetheless.
I think the pilot is worth checking out because of Gellar’s performance and watching her character learn how hideous her sister is. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to get me invested in what happens next. When the episode ended, I could feel the slow pace that this show will most likely take. With its premise, it has no other choice but to move at a snail’s pace. For that reason, I’m getting out now, and probably won’t be checking out future episodes. But the pilot in itself is okay Also, I know its television, but the score is just horrendous.
Rating: 6 out of 10 (‘Meh’)
