Written by Jennifer
October 12, 2010
...a show that amounts to little more than a guy, a chase, and a joke.
Human Target has all the makings of a great show: a strong cast of characters including Mark Valley, Jackie Earle Haley, and Chi McBride, more action than you ever dreamed of, and plenty of well-placed humor. Unfortunately, none of these elements work together, making for a show that amounts to little more than a guy, a chase, and a joke. With just a little bit of back-story and some heart, we might have wound up with something special.
Christopher Chance (Mark Valley) is the human target, placing himself in exceedingly dangerous situations in order to weed out the bad guy and thwart disaster before it occurs. Or, you know, at least get innocent bystanders out of the way before everything blows. He accepts no cash payment, working strictly on a barter system, and that is basically that. Each episode finds him in a super volatile environment (like a futuristic train which travels at 1,000 mph or some crazy thing) surrounded by cranky and/or evil people, acting all cocky and clever and "saving the day" through unorthodox means. If you think of Martin Riggs in Lethal Weapon jumping off the building with the suicidal man, you've pretty much got a handle on Christopher Chance's m.o., with the exception that he's not actually hot or tortured or interesting like Martin Riggs. He's more like a boring frat boy who somehow sucks all the air out of a room just by showing up.
To compensate for Chance's milquetoastiness, we've got Chi McBride as special ops manager and Jackie Earle Haley as a mysterious techie wizard who consistently makes problems and people "go away". It all seems fairly sinister in its Jackie Earle Haley way, which also means that his character should be a lot of fun. The trouble is, who are these people? At one point in episode two, we find Chi McBride glaring at Jackie Earle Haley as he eats from a container labeled "Winston". The moment was pregnant with comedy, and yet, I realized I didn't know who the hell Winston was. Jackie Earle Haley could have been eating his own lunch for all I knew, because we were never properly introduced.
Such is the case for the entire show. We're thrown into overly elaborate situations with characters we have no connection to, and ultimately, it's really hard to care. Sure Mark Valley looks nice in an unbuttoned tuxedo shirt. Sure that fireball looked great whizzing across the screen. But what's the point of watching when you don't really care whether Chance lives or dies and you have no idea why there's a fireball in the first place?
DVD NOTES
Extra features include two making-of featurettes with cast and creators and pilot commentary with Mark Valley.
