Eureka: Season One (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Customer Reviews:

Easy to watch, good in places.......2008-01-14

Eureka season 1 is an undemanding series. No complicated plots or deep emotions. However it can be funny and the bonus materials indicate an enthusiastic following as shown by fake infomercials and webisodes for serious fans.

First the poor bits. Each crisis is often caused by a superscience mishap and seems to often be solved by a device invented for the purpose. Jo Morton playing genius garage mechanic Henry, almost seems to mimic Mr Spock regularly saving the Enterprise by reversing the polarity on gobbledygook. A lot of the "science" is just fantasy and wish fulfilment - and might as well be magic. Just throw in a few topical physics words.

Sometimes there are events which are really tragic, involving the loss of families or loved ones. There are disasters which level city blocks and surely kill hundreds. Yet there is no feeling of loss. Its just part of the plot. Sherriff Carter never seems to stop apologising to his wayward daughter.

Now the good stuff. The acting is solid and Ed Quinn is stands out as the Director of Eureka. Selfish and driven - one episode has his emotions reflected in a computer link where his dreams of world domination become public. But he is also unsure of himself and has a nice line in sarcasm.

Colin Ferguson plays the Sheriff well, often getting a laugh with his uneducated dialog against Ed Quinns ascerbic Nathan Stark.

There are some good jokes and slapstick scenes throughout. Although if you watch the commentaries it becomes obvious that the network rearranged the episodes to make the early ones stronger and hook an audience. I think they were right, because the middle third of them did not grab me.

Well worth Buying - Excellent SC-FI Series.......2007-11-27

In the UK it used the title ' A Town Called Eureka ' and Season three is now in Production.

Take it from me there is several large websites with Podcasts etc etc + of course the Season 1 DVD comes with ' ten Hours ' of Bonus material.

If you are into the ' X Files ' or ' Taken ' then you will love ' EUReKA '

once you buy into the concept { see below } you will be hooked .

A (CONFIDENTIAL) TOWN HISTORY

As World War II came to a close with mushroom clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the impact that science and technology would have on the continued security of our world became catastrophically apparent. America nearly lost the race to build the atomic bomb; it could not risk such a close call again.

With the help of Albert Einstein and other trusted advisors, President Harry S. Truman commissioned a top-secret residential development in a remote area of the Pacific Northwest, one that would serve to protect and nurture America's most valuable intellectual resources. There our nation's greatest thinkers, the über-geniuses working on the next era of scientific achievement, would be able to live and work in a supportive environment.

The best architects and planners were commissioned to design a welcoming place for these superlative geniuses to reside, an area that would offer the best education for their children, the best healthcare, the best amenities and quality of life. A community was created to rival the most idyllic of America's small towns -- with one major difference: this town would never appear on any maps. At least, none that haven't been classified "eyes only" by the Pentagon.

Thus, the town of Eureka was born. But for all its familiar, small-town trappings, things in this secret hamlet are anything but ordinary. The stereotype of the absent-minded professor exists for a reason, and most of the quantum leaps in science and technology during the past 50 years were produced by Eureka's elite researchers. Unfortunately, scientific exploration is rarely what one expects, and years of experiments gone awry have yielded some peculiar by-products.

From unrequited love to professional jealousy, from addiction to depression, the problems of Eureka's townsfolk stem from life's myriad of everyday challenges. But with the population's unique talents, troubled psyches and limitless resources, these small-town concerns have a way of becoming big-time problems. It is at that intersection, where human frailty and super-science collide, that Eureka begins

Yeah, that can't be good.......2007-07-15

Upon discovering the answer to a now-legendary problem, Archimedes famously yelled "Eureka!" ("I have found it!"), jumped out of his bath, and ran naked through the streets.

So "Eureka" seems like an appropriate name for the Sci-Fi Channel's quirky, well-written sci-fi series, all about a tiny town that brims over with geniuses and scientific breakthroughs. A few of the storylines are draggy, but the series also has some great acting, brilliant dilemmas, and mysteries that promise to fuel future seasons.

While dragging his delinquent daughter back to L.A., Marshal Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson) accidentally crashes the car. The only nearby place is the picture-perfect small-town of Eureka. But Jack starts to suspect that Eureka is a little odd -- a woman making triangular bubbles, a quartet of clones, and a little autistic boy making physics equations on the sidewalk are only a few of the oddities.

His suspicions are confirmed when random places get blasted to ashes, including a cowfield and an RV. So Jack is told Eureka's secret -- it's a town entirely inhabited by geniuses, set up by the government to create new scientific advances. But a scientist has done a little project all on his own, producing a tachyon accelerator -- which is ripping the seams out of the universe.

Because the sheriff was badly injured by the accelerator, D.O.D. representative Allison Blake (Salli Richardson-Whitfield) makes Jack the new sheriff of Eureka. Now he has a new job, a "smart house" in an old nuclear bunker, and a trigger-happy deputy who loves her guns.

But he also has has to deal with a bunch of strange problems -- an electrical "ghost," a scientist whose healing experiments transform him, alien paranoia, memory blackouts, a doomsday device from the Cold War, a drug that causes superspeed, killer nanites, problematic pollen, and a mysterious Artifact deep inside the Global Dynamics building...

The first season of "Eureka" is a pretty good example of how to make a sci-fi show -- not many programs can balance out standalone episodes with long-term arcs (the Artifact, Beverly's agenda). Some of these don't work out, like the artificial Jack/Allison attraction, but most of the time "Eureka" stays on solid ground.

Yeah, most of the storylines center on scientific disasters. But the writers sprinkle it with funny scenarios (the baseball teams are called the Protons and Neutrons) and funny dialogue ("Well, car or no car, this is a 30 mile an hour zone"). But there are moments of poignancy, such as Nathan Stark's tearful farewell to his robot "son," or a woman reluctantly starting to care about her clone's little son.

Despite being the lead, Ferguson doesn't stand out as much because his character is so... ordinary. It's the weirdos that are lovable -- Matt Frewer as a deranged Aussie vet, Ed Quinn as a charming head researcher (and Allison's ex-hubby), Neil Grayston as an ubergeek, and Joe Morton as the car mechanic who also happens to be a brilliant inventer. Jordan Hinson rounds off the cast as Jack's troublemaking daughter.

The first season of "Eureka" hits some road bumps, but it's definitely a well-written, intelligent sci-fi series with a quirky, funny twist. Eureka!

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