Visions of Doom

Minority Report

I have found that there are a few new shows this fall that are based on successful movies. Though I have a hard time figuring out why these films should be converted into TV shows. Rush Hour is a great buddy cop film, but can only be another ‘crime-of-the-week’ show. Not really sure how you can make Limitless a TV show either (though a review is coming soon). Then there is the one that puzzles me the most, Minority Report. Announced a few months ago by FOX, I thought that the show would be every case that we didn’t see from the Steven Spielberg film, but of course my common sense gets trumped by Hollywood yet again.

Minority Report takes place 10 years after the events of the film. The Pre-Crime division of the Washington, D.C. Police Department has been abolished, but the Precogs still receive visions of would-be murders. One of the three Precogs, Dash (Stark Sands Inside Llewyn Davis), still has the desire to help people. The trouble with that is the Precogs are trying to stay hidden. The challenge of staying hidden becomes even more complicated for Dash when he decides to help solve a murder by trying to contact one of the detectives on the case, Lara Vega (Meagan Good Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues). Promising to keep his secret, Vega and Dash set out to stop another murder before it starts.

So…this was wasted potential from the start. First, unless you have seen (or even remember) the 2002 film, there are references within the show that you may be lost from. There is a brief voice over in the beginning of the show but it still doesn’t give enough information unless you have seen the film. Second, they are basically rebuilding what Tom Cruise set to destroy in the film; cops using Precogs to stop crime before it starts. Thirdly, I wholeheartedly believe that if they wanted to make a TV series about this film they should have done it BEFORE the events of the movie. Show how Pre-Crime starts and how it succeeds.

The show lacks strong characters as well. Good’s character is a typical cop following in her father’s footsteps because he was tragically killed on duty. She doesn’t change anything from the same formula that many other actors have used before. Sands only confuses me because Dash is so timid and socially awkward and yet his siblings seem to fold into the society around them quite nicely.

The show is also just plain boring. There was barely any ‘action’ and the show just seemed rushed together. Unless the writers can make the characters distinct from every other character on TV like them and make the show just a little less shiny, Minority Report will sink very quickly and it will be the first show FOX SHOULD cancel (still very bitter about Firefly).

My Prediction: Lasts only a half of a season. Not Worth Your Time.