After being absent from the small screen for the better part of 8 years, save for a couple of guest starring roles here and there, Sarah Michelle Gellar returns to television playing the dual role of Bridget Kelly/Siobhan Martin on The CW’s new drama Ringer. Within the first 10 minutes of the pilot episode the show establishes who each twin is, their differences, and how Bridget came to pretend to be Siobhan. Unfortunately we already knew this information from the many promos that played throughout the summer so it pretty much feels dated by that point. The problem with pilots is that they are often spent either setting up the characters or setting up the story and very rarely are they able to successfully pull off both as is the case with Ringer. The plot was firmly established and the seeds of mystery have been planted. So there’s that. Too bad by the end of the first hour I couldn’t care less about any of the characters and no matter how well they filmed the twin scenes it felt jarring. In fact I was ready to cut my losses, hell it’s not like my schedule allows for a lot of free time, until I saw a news bulletin stating that one of the actors who starred in one of my stalker shows was going to have a reoccurring role. Once I saw that there was no way I was going to be able to stop watching. Even if the show sucked. Sometimes my stalker rule is a cruel bitch.
For those of you wondering what my stalker rule is I have 5 shows that I am obsessed with and have and will continue to rewatch on DVD/Bluray/Netflix any forum really. I also have TV show creators that I am obsessed with and will follow any where but none of them came up with Ringer so that rule doesn’t count here. No Ringer falls into the stalker show rule because of 2 favorites: Lost (Nestor Carbonell) and Veronica Mars (Jason Dohring who will be reoccurring on the show soon). So you can see why I had to keep watching before passing final judgment.
The second episode immediately expects you to suspend your belief in reality because the barely 105lb SMG somehow manages to stash away a dead body and then 20 minutes later stashes it away again, but this time in steamer trunk that is about two times to small for a body that size. I wonder if Dexter took time out from being a homicidal killer on his own show to come over and help Siobhan/Bridgett out with her little project. I was able to believe that little Buffy Summers could kick ass because the writers on that show provided an explanation as to why she had super strength and plus it was a show about vampires, demons, and other such baddies so suspended belief was a mandate for watching the show to begin with. But Ringer is supposed to be set in reality, granted not a reality I have ever been a part of living. If you are wondering why I have spent the last paragraph talking about a dead body it would be because that was what the second episode was centered around. Yeah I know.
What I haven’t been able to wrap my mind around is that the Siobhan was married to Andrew she quite obviously didn’t love him because she was carrying on a major affair with her best friend’s husband Henry the struggling writer; So why is Bridgett acting like she is trying to mend her sister’s marriage? I understand that her personality is going to differ from her sister’s and that just by the act of her being their is going to change the relationships around her. I understand the Observer effect (thank you Fringe) but from the flashbacks you don’t necessarily get the idea that the twins were very close so it really shouldn’t matter to Bridgett one way or another if her sister’s husband likes her or not. And then you have her sponsor/friend/probable lover who doesn’t have anything to do right now other than talk on the phone and beg Bridgett to run away with him while he gets stalked by Bridgett’s would be killers. Plus you have the FBI agent Victor Machado who is dancing around the edges looking for a way in to the main action.
All of this is going on and still the show feels as there is it has no direction and no idea what it want’s to be. I don’t have a problem with a show finding itself or growing in to what it is meant to be but having no direction from the beginning is a sure sign of trouble on the horizon. So far I am on episode 3 and there is still no sign of Jason Dohring making an appearance and I am starting to wonder if I can hold on that long, because I know once he shows up I am honor bound by the stalker rule to continue watching until he is no longer on. But hell maybe a miracle will happen by then and I will actually enjoy watching Ringer. Weirder things have happened. My final rating is
Stream it:
Watch it on the internet! Not worth keeping up with but good enough to waste some work time.
By Mendie
Related articles
- Sarah Michelle Gellar Talks “Ringer” On “The Rachael Ray Show” (rightcelebrity.com)
- Episode Review: RINGER (“She’s Ruining Everything”) (mralphafreak.wordpress.com)
