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Walker: Pilot

"Just Walker is fine."

I so want to like this show.

Walker is a reboot of Walker, Texas Ranger. Or is it? Is it anything like the original? I never saw a single episode of the original; any mention of it reminds me of a hilarious line by a guy who rose from the dead in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Okay, okay, here it is.

Bob: "How long I been down?"
Jack: "Eight months. I had to wait till the stars aligned."
Bob: "Oh, eight months. I got some catching up to do. Whoa! Walker, Texas Ranger. You been taping 'em?"
Jack: "Every ep."

Sorry for the Buffy digression. Back to Walker.

Cordell Walker (Jared Padalecki) was widowed eleven months ago (mysterious circumstances, of course), and then he inexplicably spent ten months working undercover. And now he's back and his two teenage children, Stella and August, are understandably pissed and feeling neglected, even though they have terrific grandparents with whom they were living on a picturesque horse ranch. Lots of set-up for single father drama there.

They cast a bunch of actors I really like, which is always a good thing. As a long time fan of Supernatural, it was fun to see Genevieve Padalecki as Walker's late wife and Mitch Pileggi as Walker's father. Lindsey Morgan (The 100) stole pretty much every scene she was in, Keegan Allen was possibly intriguing as Walker's little brother, ditto Coby Bell (Burn Notice) as Walker's former partner and current boss. Odette Annable (Supergirl) might make for a convincing love interest.

And now I've run out of good things to say.

Too much of this show just doesn't work for me. The super annoying and aggressive musical score. Not being able to see half of the actors' faces under those immense cowboy hats. Every line sounding like a line I've heard many times before. Okay, the fact that it's a formulaic cop show, because I don't watch formulaic cop shows.

The thing is, I really want this show to succeed and I'm hoping I'm just being a bitch about it and that it gets a lot better. I love Jared Padalecki with all my heart and I'm sure it's convenient for him to work in Austin, where he lives. And it was fun to see bits of Austin again. I actually lived there when I was a grad student, and it's my favorite city in Texas. Even if it is unbelievably, ungodly hot for way too much of the year, with weird ice storms and other craziness the rest of the time. Central Market! The Bat Bridge!

What did you think? Is this show a keeper, or will the lack of demons and pentagrams bring it down?
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

7 comments:

  1. I would recommend giving it a few more eps since the first eps are always iffy.

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  2. I remember the original, and I didn't like it. And I was going into this show with "This is going to be the same thing, isn't it?" And it's not. I didn't mind this episode, but I agree with you--the music score was annoying! I couldn't hear half of the dialogue.

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  3. Remember taping things? I feel old now.

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  4. Sunbunny, you'll always be a young whippersnapper to me.

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  5. Oh God, I don't remember taping things. Now I feel young! Like a wee baby!

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  6. I really didn't like this at all. Great actors - terrible story writing. I looked up the writer/creator of this and her resumé was not good.

    I usually have a 10 episode rule to give things a chance, but this!!?? I think I might drop it immediately.

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  7. I'm willing to give it a few more eps since it's JP...but by the same token, I'm having trouble seeing him as anything but Sam Winchester. ;) That's going to take a bit of getting used to for me. Especially with the other Supernatural castings!

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