'Thoughtcrimes' (2003) movie review(s)
a few oldies but a goodies....
Thoughtcrimes (2003) Movie Review
By Nix | April 26, 2004 (11:34 pm)
"Thoughtcrimes" is an origins episode. Even though it's being sold as a 90-minute movie, anyone familiar with episodic TV can tell you right away that "Thoughtcrimes" was a 2-hour TV pilot that never materialized into a regular show. Which is an awful shame, because this is one of the better sci-fi/superhero show that's come along since the irrelevant and goofy "The Invisible Man", starring Vincent Ventresca as a thief-turned-superhero and Paul Ben-Victor as his gung-ho partner/warden.
The best reason why "Thoughtcrimes" works so well is Navi Rawat. The relative newcomer plays Freya McAllister, who on the night of her prom discovers that she has latent telepathic powers. The discovery turns her somewhat insane and she's subsequently locked away in a mental hospital. In a bit of blink-and-you'll-miss exposition, we learn that her mother may have had the same "gift", and died as a result of it. Years past, and Freya's father dies in an accident, her sister has gone on with her life, and Freya, with no one to take care of, becomes a ward of the State.
Enter Michael Welles (Peter Horton), a doctor researching telepathy. Welles whisks Freya away to a secluded farm where he teachers her to harness her powers. And since writers Donnelly and Oppenheimer knows they are working with a 90-minute pilot/origins episode, Freya's reluctant coming to terms with her gift takes the entire first half of the film. But fear not, you won't be bored for a single second of it. Forty-five minutes watching the beautiful Navi Rawat acting her heart out is not the worst thing you can do with 45 minutes of your life.
With the audience having devoted their time and now their sympathies to Freya's plight, her induction into the world of spies and criminals via the NSA has us right alongside her. Freya flees upon learning that Welles works for the NSA, and that they plan to use her as a weapon, but to no one's surprised (it is the show's premise, after all) Freya eventually agrees to help the NSA. Freya is sent after an elusive international assassin who no one has ever seen, and who has come to the States to kill an important government official. She is teamed up with NSA field agent Brendan Dean (Joe Flanigan), but is forbidden to tell him about her powers.
Understandably, Dean is not so hot about the raw deal, but since the orders came from the top (Joe Morton, playing the head of the NSA), he has no choice. The second half of the film follows Freya and Dean as they track down the assassin, with Freya using her powers to uncover secrets from the minds of criminals. Once again proving that they have a handle on their leading lady, Donnelly and Oppenheimer's script never makes it too easy for Freya. She's tentative and even afraid out in the field; men with guns are running around, and at one point she realizes Dean has just entered a booby-trapped building set to explode.
Through it all, Navi Rawat shows her stuff like a champ. "Thoughtcrimes" works, and would have worked marvelously as a series, because of Rawat. Not that Joe Flanigan is chop liver. The man who would go on to crack wise on "Stargate: Atlantis" was cracking wise on "Thoughtcrimes" a year earlier. With that familiar "It looks disheveled, but I think it's a style" haircut and the Richard Dean Anderson-esque mannerisms, Flanigan makes an excellent foil to the serious Freya. She's spent years in a mental institution and trying to come to terms with a power that scares the hell out of her; he has a photographic memory and likes to sing the Scooby-Doo theme song in his head.
Another plus for the movie is Peter Horton. Although he appears to be a good guy, there's something not completely on the "up and up" with his character. I had the distinct feeling that Welles was being set up to become a villain in the never-happened series. For instance, Welles is possibly the only person in the world who has developed the discipline to hide his thoughts from Freya, making him invulnerable to her. Also, the movie's final scene, with Welles looking secretly over Freya's shoulder (remember, she can't hear his thoughts, so she doesn't know he's around), hints at a darker agenda by the good doctor.
As a standalone movie and a TV pilot, "Thoughtcrimes" is thoroughly entertaining. It has a radiant lead in Navi Rawat and a funny jester in Flanigan. Scully and Mulder these two ain't, and that's a good thing. Unfortunately "Thoughtcrimes" never materialized as a series, and as a result genre fans are missing out on what would have been a terrific show.
Although it should be noted that the movie was released in 2003, and it's only 2004 as of this writing. Is a viable series still in the realm of possibility? One can only hope.
Breck Eisner (director) / Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer (screenplay)
CAST:
Navi Rawat …. Freya McAllister
Joe Flanigan …. Brendan Dean
Jocelyn Seagrave …. June MacAllister
Peter Horton …. Dr. Michael Welles
Dylan Bierk …. Elizabeth
http://www.beyondhollywood.com/thought-crimes-2003-movie-review/
Uh-oh... thought police ahead
Written: Dec 11 '06 (Updated Dec 11 '06)
Product Rating: 4.0
Pros: Good mix of action and humour, intelligent script...
Cons: ... too many plot flaws and unanswered questions (paving the_way for_a series that_was never made?)
The Bottom Line: An entertaining sci-fi thriller that certainly won't disappoint, though it will leave you wanting more.
captaind's Full Review: Thoughtcrimes
Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.
Thoughtcrimes is a 2003 science fiction thriller with a little known cast and a “made-for-TV” feel about it, but still a very enjoyable and fairly intelligent film. It starts with a young woman (Freya McAllister) going to her high school prom, and while there suddenly hearing voices inside her head. She can’t get rid of the voices and ends up in a mental institution for years, where her fragile grip on sanity is only preserved by her finding a way to quiet the voices - at the expense of any kind of human interaction whatsoever.
After several years someone turns up to take her away, and it turns out that she has, not a disease, but a gift - a gift the NSA (National Security Agency) want to harness for their own benefit. After some initial training and some tantrums she is put on her first case, with maverick agent Brendan Dean. He doesn’t know about her gift, which makes their relationship very strained - and when he finds out, that strain becomes even worse. However, they must find a way to defeat an assassination plot - and time is running out…
I don’t remember seeing any of the cast members before, but the acting is pretty good in this film. Navi Rawat plays Freya, and her portrayal of the character’s initial vulnerability, fear, and slow comprehension of her true possibilities is very believable. I liked Joe Flannigan’s acting as Brendan Dean, and there were quite a few humorous moments between the two which went a long way to making this such an enjoyable film. He looks a little like a cross between David Duchuvny and Keanu Reeves, with a little bit of Owen Wilson in his voice. At any rate he puts in a good performance, and his character is always fun to watch, whether he’s in action mode, comedy mode, or embarrassed mode. Jocelyn Seagrave is the only cast member whose name seems familiar, though I can’t place it, and she plays Freya’s older sister. Peter Horton fills the other main character as Dr Michael Welles, who initially rescues Freya from the asylum and teaches her how to use her abilities. His character is caring but limited to what he’s asked to do by those who supply his funding.
All in all this is very enjoyable sci-fi action thriller material, well acted, with decent effects, and a storyline that keeps you guessing as to who the real villain is. Director Breck Eisner does a good job of balancing the action and humour. There are one or two cheesy moments but nothing to make you want to turn it off. As mentioned earlier this really does look like a TV movie, with dramatic fade-outs that seem to invite a commercial break, but nowhere does it seem to suggest that this actually was made for TV. More than anything it actually feels like a feature-length pilot episode, and indeed many people who’ve seen it would like to see it made into a series, or at least have a series. This brings me to the main failing of the film - as it stands on its own, it is very enjoyable but had several gaping plot holes and unanswered questions. Some of these were so gaping - i.e. just why was Freya identified by the NSA as having this gift in the first place, was that what her mother really had (this is hinted at), if she’s really one of a kind then how did all the relevant technology to help her get developed, etc. There also seemed a possibility of a love triangle between Freya, Brandon, and Michael, but this is never explored (though Brandon seemed to like her sister more anyway). So, as a film in its own right, it does leave too many unanswered questions.
This doesn’t stop it from being an enjoyable film though, it just means that you’ll have to suspend your belief perhaps a little more than usual for this type of movie. If a sequel did come out (or a series), I’d certainly want to watch it.
It seems to have originated in Canada though possibly made initially for Argentinan TV. Runtime is 89 minutes, and UK rating is 12 (roughly equivalent to PG-13 - there’s certainly very little offensive material in it, though young viewers might get upset with earlier scenes when Freya is institutionalised. The back cover of the UK DVD says "Contains moderate violence", which I guess is a fair description.)
Unfortunately the DVD edition is quite difficult to get hold of. (If enough of us email Universal Pictures and maybe we can get a re-release or even a sequel?!?) It's presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen with a nice clean print and good sound quality. There are no extras on the DVD apart from English subtitles.
Thought control USA's 'Thoughtcrimes' too inhibited to make use of a promising premise.
(Time Out!)
Article from:
Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)
Article date:
October 15, 2004
Author: Cox, Ted
Byline: Ted Cox Daily Herald TV/Radio Columnist
There's an intriguing TV program lurking within cable USA's new "Thoughtcrimes." Unfortunately, this made-for-TV movie isn't it.
Debuting at 8 p.m. today on USA, "Thoughtcrimes" stars Navi Rawat as a woman who, suddenly in the middle of her high-school prom, discovers she can read minds. Yet it's not just one at a time, but all at once, and the internal cacophony of voices drives her straight into a mental institution.
If this resonates with the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" episode "Earshot," the movie will later cop freely from elements of "Alias," "Dark Angel" and "La Femme Nikita." Originality is not one of its strong suits.
Yet it doesn't need to be. Plenty of great TV shows have been even more shameless about stealing from others; in the end, however, they succeeded in making whatever they were stealing their own. "Thoughtcrimes" never takes that leap.
Rawat's Freya McAllister is considered a lost cause in the schizophrenic ward until one day she scoops up an idle copy of "Sarah, Plain and Tall." Finding that one strong internal voice drowns out the others, she moves on to "Alice in Wonderland" and Dickens. This brings her to the attention of Peter Horton's Dr. Welles.
Welles kisses off the bureaucrat who has been ignoring Freya for nine years by saying, "Take a good look at her, Doctor. She's the most important person you'll ever meet."
Welles has identified Freya as a "telepath," and he retrieves her for his own project, teaching her along the way to channel her powers by focusing on one voice at a time. His project, however, is simply part of a larger government operation run by Joe Morton's National Security wonk.
Morton needs Freya for a critical investigation - antiterrorism, of course - even though Welles argues, "She's not ready." When Freya discovers she's simply being used, off she goes, feeling betrayed.
The ability to read minds comes in handy, it turns out, when one needs the three-digit code to get through a security door. It also doesn't hurt that Freya is foxy and fit- doesn't hurt the Nielsen ratings, that is.
This is all fairly routine and by the numbers as plot development goes. Where "Thoughtcrimes" grows some personality of its own is with the addition of Joe Flanigan as low-level agent Brendan Dean. Dean is considered a bit of a loser by his colleagues, so it makes sense he would be assigned an "observer" when Freya returns to the fold and is discretely deployed for action.
With the help of Freya's mind-reading - which also comes in handy during interrogations - Dean enjoys some success. Yet he's not exactly excited when he finds that Freya knows he's been humming the theme song to "Scooby-Doo" to himself all day long - not to mention all the other unspoken thoughts he's had about her and every other woman he's met.
That's where "Thoughtcrimes" seems like a promising series pilot. Imagine a "Moonlighting" in which Maddie Hayes is aware of not just all the obnoxious things David Addison has been saying, but the even more offensive things he's been thinking and kept to himself, and you get the idea of the potential for conflict here.
Yet writers Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer pull back from those implications, and Breck Eisner offers little more than pedestrian direction. "Thoughtcrimes" squanders its promise, as Dean becomes a caring, solicitous partner, and the action devolves into a standard shoot-'em-up, blow-'em-up, brain-dead thriller.
Oh, there are some yuks along the way. A sniper drawing a bead on a suspected terrorist in his loft says, "You would not believe what this guy is doing. He's mixing peanut butter with roast beef!"
It's not enough. Executive producer Jan DeBont of "Speed" fame should have pushed his creative team harder. Instead, they settle for the obvious.
"Thoughtcrimes" reminds me of a comic-book character named Evangeline (made famous in a song by Matthew Sweet). Evangeline was sort of a superhero nun, allowing the writers all sorts of angles to get wonderfully warped playing with religion. Yet, in the end, it was too content just to be an action comic book with elements of religion tossed in for spice.
That's "Thoughtcrimes'" sin as well. Although it toys with a few powerful ideas - what are the everyday thoughts so personal we won't share them with others? Does the ability to read minds lend itself to empathy or actually discourage it? -it's content to be just a run-of-the-mill cop-show action movie.
I can read the minds of the creators of "Thoughtcrimes," and I know they're holding back, limiting themselves. Too bad. Maybe some later TV show will steal the idea and make something better of it.
- Ted Cox's column runs Tuesday and Thursday in Suburban Living, Friday in sports and Friday in Time out!
Thoughtcrimes (2003) Movie Review
By Nix | April 26, 2004 (11:34 pm)
"Thoughtcrimes" is an origins episode. Even though it's being sold as a 90-minute movie, anyone familiar with episodic TV can tell you right away that "Thoughtcrimes" was a 2-hour TV pilot that never materialized into a regular show. Which is an awful shame, because this is one of the better sci-fi/superhero show that's come along since the irrelevant and goofy "The Invisible Man", starring Vincent Ventresca as a thief-turned-superhero and Paul Ben-Victor as his gung-ho partner/warden.
The best reason why "Thoughtcrimes" works so well is Navi Rawat. The relative newcomer plays Freya McAllister, who on the night of her prom discovers that she has latent telepathic powers. The discovery turns her somewhat insane and she's subsequently locked away in a mental hospital. In a bit of blink-and-you'll-miss exposition, we learn that her mother may have had the same "gift", and died as a result of it. Years past, and Freya's father dies in an accident, her sister has gone on with her life, and Freya, with no one to take care of, becomes a ward of the State.
Enter Michael Welles (Peter Horton), a doctor researching telepathy. Welles whisks Freya away to a secluded farm where he teachers her to harness her powers. And since writers Donnelly and Oppenheimer knows they are working with a 90-minute pilot/origins episode, Freya's reluctant coming to terms with her gift takes the entire first half of the film. But fear not, you won't be bored for a single second of it. Forty-five minutes watching the beautiful Navi Rawat acting her heart out is not the worst thing you can do with 45 minutes of your life.
With the audience having devoted their time and now their sympathies to Freya's plight, her induction into the world of spies and criminals via the NSA has us right alongside her. Freya flees upon learning that Welles works for the NSA, and that they plan to use her as a weapon, but to no one's surprised (it is the show's premise, after all) Freya eventually agrees to help the NSA. Freya is sent after an elusive international assassin who no one has ever seen, and who has come to the States to kill an important government official. She is teamed up with NSA field agent Brendan Dean (Joe Flanigan), but is forbidden to tell him about her powers.
Understandably, Dean is not so hot about the raw deal, but since the orders came from the top (Joe Morton, playing the head of the NSA), he has no choice. The second half of the film follows Freya and Dean as they track down the assassin, with Freya using her powers to uncover secrets from the minds of criminals. Once again proving that they have a handle on their leading lady, Donnelly and Oppenheimer's script never makes it too easy for Freya. She's tentative and even afraid out in the field; men with guns are running around, and at one point she realizes Dean has just entered a booby-trapped building set to explode.
Through it all, Navi Rawat shows her stuff like a champ. "Thoughtcrimes" works, and would have worked marvelously as a series, because of Rawat. Not that Joe Flanigan is chop liver. The man who would go on to crack wise on "Stargate: Atlantis" was cracking wise on "Thoughtcrimes" a year earlier. With that familiar "It looks disheveled, but I think it's a style" haircut and the Richard Dean Anderson-esque mannerisms, Flanigan makes an excellent foil to the serious Freya. She's spent years in a mental institution and trying to come to terms with a power that scares the hell out of her; he has a photographic memory and likes to sing the Scooby-Doo theme song in his head.
Another plus for the movie is Peter Horton. Although he appears to be a good guy, there's something not completely on the "up and up" with his character. I had the distinct feeling that Welles was being set up to become a villain in the never-happened series. For instance, Welles is possibly the only person in the world who has developed the discipline to hide his thoughts from Freya, making him invulnerable to her. Also, the movie's final scene, with Welles looking secretly over Freya's shoulder (remember, she can't hear his thoughts, so she doesn't know he's around), hints at a darker agenda by the good doctor.
As a standalone movie and a TV pilot, "Thoughtcrimes" is thoroughly entertaining. It has a radiant lead in Navi Rawat and a funny jester in Flanigan. Scully and Mulder these two ain't, and that's a good thing. Unfortunately "Thoughtcrimes" never materialized as a series, and as a result genre fans are missing out on what would have been a terrific show.
Although it should be noted that the movie was released in 2003, and it's only 2004 as of this writing. Is a viable series still in the realm of possibility? One can only hope.
Breck Eisner (director) / Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer (screenplay)
CAST:
Navi Rawat …. Freya McAllister
Joe Flanigan …. Brendan Dean
Jocelyn Seagrave …. June MacAllister
Peter Horton …. Dr. Michael Welles
Dylan Bierk …. Elizabeth
http://www.beyondhollywood.com/thought-crimes-2003-movie-review/
Uh-oh... thought police ahead
Written: Dec 11 '06 (Updated Dec 11 '06)
Product Rating: 4.0
Pros: Good mix of action and humour, intelligent script...
Cons: ... too many plot flaws and unanswered questions (paving the_way for_a series that_was never made?)
The Bottom Line: An entertaining sci-fi thriller that certainly won't disappoint, though it will leave you wanting more.
captaind's Full Review: Thoughtcrimes
Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.
Thoughtcrimes is a 2003 science fiction thriller with a little known cast and a “made-for-TV” feel about it, but still a very enjoyable and fairly intelligent film. It starts with a young woman (Freya McAllister) going to her high school prom, and while there suddenly hearing voices inside her head. She can’t get rid of the voices and ends up in a mental institution for years, where her fragile grip on sanity is only preserved by her finding a way to quiet the voices - at the expense of any kind of human interaction whatsoever.
After several years someone turns up to take her away, and it turns out that she has, not a disease, but a gift - a gift the NSA (National Security Agency) want to harness for their own benefit. After some initial training and some tantrums she is put on her first case, with maverick agent Brendan Dean. He doesn’t know about her gift, which makes their relationship very strained - and when he finds out, that strain becomes even worse. However, they must find a way to defeat an assassination plot - and time is running out…
I don’t remember seeing any of the cast members before, but the acting is pretty good in this film. Navi Rawat plays Freya, and her portrayal of the character’s initial vulnerability, fear, and slow comprehension of her true possibilities is very believable. I liked Joe Flannigan’s acting as Brendan Dean, and there were quite a few humorous moments between the two which went a long way to making this such an enjoyable film. He looks a little like a cross between David Duchuvny and Keanu Reeves, with a little bit of Owen Wilson in his voice. At any rate he puts in a good performance, and his character is always fun to watch, whether he’s in action mode, comedy mode, or embarrassed mode. Jocelyn Seagrave is the only cast member whose name seems familiar, though I can’t place it, and she plays Freya’s older sister. Peter Horton fills the other main character as Dr Michael Welles, who initially rescues Freya from the asylum and teaches her how to use her abilities. His character is caring but limited to what he’s asked to do by those who supply his funding.
All in all this is very enjoyable sci-fi action thriller material, well acted, with decent effects, and a storyline that keeps you guessing as to who the real villain is. Director Breck Eisner does a good job of balancing the action and humour. There are one or two cheesy moments but nothing to make you want to turn it off. As mentioned earlier this really does look like a TV movie, with dramatic fade-outs that seem to invite a commercial break, but nowhere does it seem to suggest that this actually was made for TV. More than anything it actually feels like a feature-length pilot episode, and indeed many people who’ve seen it would like to see it made into a series, or at least have a series. This brings me to the main failing of the film - as it stands on its own, it is very enjoyable but had several gaping plot holes and unanswered questions. Some of these were so gaping - i.e. just why was Freya identified by the NSA as having this gift in the first place, was that what her mother really had (this is hinted at), if she’s really one of a kind then how did all the relevant technology to help her get developed, etc. There also seemed a possibility of a love triangle between Freya, Brandon, and Michael, but this is never explored (though Brandon seemed to like her sister more anyway). So, as a film in its own right, it does leave too many unanswered questions.
This doesn’t stop it from being an enjoyable film though, it just means that you’ll have to suspend your belief perhaps a little more than usual for this type of movie. If a sequel did come out (or a series), I’d certainly want to watch it.
It seems to have originated in Canada though possibly made initially for Argentinan TV. Runtime is 89 minutes, and UK rating is 12 (roughly equivalent to PG-13 - there’s certainly very little offensive material in it, though young viewers might get upset with earlier scenes when Freya is institutionalised. The back cover of the UK DVD says "Contains moderate violence", which I guess is a fair description.)
Unfortunately the DVD edition is quite difficult to get hold of. (If enough of us email Universal Pictures and maybe we can get a re-release or even a sequel?!?) It's presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen with a nice clean print and good sound quality. There are no extras on the DVD apart from English subtitles.
Thought control USA's 'Thoughtcrimes' too inhibited to make use of a promising premise.
(Time Out!)
Article from:
Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)
Article date:
October 15, 2004
Author: Cox, Ted
Byline: Ted Cox Daily Herald TV/Radio Columnist
There's an intriguing TV program lurking within cable USA's new "Thoughtcrimes." Unfortunately, this made-for-TV movie isn't it.
Debuting at 8 p.m. today on USA, "Thoughtcrimes" stars Navi Rawat as a woman who, suddenly in the middle of her high-school prom, discovers she can read minds. Yet it's not just one at a time, but all at once, and the internal cacophony of voices drives her straight into a mental institution.
If this resonates with the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" episode "Earshot," the movie will later cop freely from elements of "Alias," "Dark Angel" and "La Femme Nikita." Originality is not one of its strong suits.
Yet it doesn't need to be. Plenty of great TV shows have been even more shameless about stealing from others; in the end, however, they succeeded in making whatever they were stealing their own. "Thoughtcrimes" never takes that leap.
Rawat's Freya McAllister is considered a lost cause in the schizophrenic ward until one day she scoops up an idle copy of "Sarah, Plain and Tall." Finding that one strong internal voice drowns out the others, she moves on to "Alice in Wonderland" and Dickens. This brings her to the attention of Peter Horton's Dr. Welles.
Welles kisses off the bureaucrat who has been ignoring Freya for nine years by saying, "Take a good look at her, Doctor. She's the most important person you'll ever meet."
Welles has identified Freya as a "telepath," and he retrieves her for his own project, teaching her along the way to channel her powers by focusing on one voice at a time. His project, however, is simply part of a larger government operation run by Joe Morton's National Security wonk.
Morton needs Freya for a critical investigation - antiterrorism, of course - even though Welles argues, "She's not ready." When Freya discovers she's simply being used, off she goes, feeling betrayed.
The ability to read minds comes in handy, it turns out, when one needs the three-digit code to get through a security door. It also doesn't hurt that Freya is foxy and fit- doesn't hurt the Nielsen ratings, that is.
This is all fairly routine and by the numbers as plot development goes. Where "Thoughtcrimes" grows some personality of its own is with the addition of Joe Flanigan as low-level agent Brendan Dean. Dean is considered a bit of a loser by his colleagues, so it makes sense he would be assigned an "observer" when Freya returns to the fold and is discretely deployed for action.
With the help of Freya's mind-reading - which also comes in handy during interrogations - Dean enjoys some success. Yet he's not exactly excited when he finds that Freya knows he's been humming the theme song to "Scooby-Doo" to himself all day long - not to mention all the other unspoken thoughts he's had about her and every other woman he's met.
That's where "Thoughtcrimes" seems like a promising series pilot. Imagine a "Moonlighting" in which Maddie Hayes is aware of not just all the obnoxious things David Addison has been saying, but the even more offensive things he's been thinking and kept to himself, and you get the idea of the potential for conflict here.
Yet writers Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer pull back from those implications, and Breck Eisner offers little more than pedestrian direction. "Thoughtcrimes" squanders its promise, as Dean becomes a caring, solicitous partner, and the action devolves into a standard shoot-'em-up, blow-'em-up, brain-dead thriller.
Oh, there are some yuks along the way. A sniper drawing a bead on a suspected terrorist in his loft says, "You would not believe what this guy is doing. He's mixing peanut butter with roast beef!"
It's not enough. Executive producer Jan DeBont of "Speed" fame should have pushed his creative team harder. Instead, they settle for the obvious.
"Thoughtcrimes" reminds me of a comic-book character named Evangeline (made famous in a song by Matthew Sweet). Evangeline was sort of a superhero nun, allowing the writers all sorts of angles to get wonderfully warped playing with religion. Yet, in the end, it was too content just to be an action comic book with elements of religion tossed in for spice.
That's "Thoughtcrimes'" sin as well. Although it toys with a few powerful ideas - what are the everyday thoughts so personal we won't share them with others? Does the ability to read minds lend itself to empathy or actually discourage it? -it's content to be just a run-of-the-mill cop-show action movie.
I can read the minds of the creators of "Thoughtcrimes," and I know they're holding back, limiting themselves. Too bad. Maybe some later TV show will steal the idea and make something better of it.
- Ted Cox's column runs Tuesday and Thursday in Suburban Living, Friday in sports and Friday in Time out!