The Others
by Paul Rosenblum

Calling Rod Serling: The Others are now entering The Twilight Zone.

The thrill is over. NBC's "thrillogy" on Saturday nights are to thrill no more. The Pretender pretended for the last time on NBC. Profiler is looking straight ahead. And my favorite, The Others is on the "other side" of the NBC schedule; the one that doesn't make it on air this September.

Ok, Sci-Fi Channel - let me see you making some phone calls to these production companies. When Fox canceled Sliders, you picked them up. Earlier, you picked up Brimstone and Space: Above and Beyond. The first ever "thrillogy" series with Eric Close called Dark Skies was also picked up by you. Now, start calling and pick up the best of the "thrillogy" series - The Others. (with one minor cast change please).

I won't pretend that I'm into The Pretender, and the only "profiler" that I like is Frank Black from Millennium. I will say, however, that I have enjoyed The Others for the past several weeks. It has an ensemble cast made up of Bill Cobbs, Gabriel Macht, John Aylward, John Billingsly, Kevin O'Conner, Melissa Crider, and Julianne Nicholson, whom we shall discuss later. (Do we have to?)

The premise of this series is that there is a group of people who meet once a week (or more if there's a crisis of some sort) to discuss each person's particular psychic or supernatural abilities. Bill Cobbs plays Elmer Greentree, the leader of the ?Others? who has been a medium for many years and worked for the Army when he was much younger. Gabriel Macht portrays Mark Gabriel, who is a doctor and a truly empathetic intern in a hospital. John Aylward is Albert who is blind, but has a heightened sixth sense. John Billingsley is a professor of folklore whose character name is Miles. Warren Day, Kevin O'Conner plays a seer, and Melissa Crider is a "sensitive" whose one and only name is Satori.

The Others was a critically acclaimed show by most reviewers. I watch it and will continue watching it until NBC takes it off their airwaves permanently. If you believe in psychic phenomena or are at least open to it, the show always give you something to think about. There is truly no main character in the show; hence, every story centers on someone else's special ability. The show is co-produced and written by the same team behind the more successful X-Files episodes. They are written well, interesting, thought provoking and enjoyed by critics. Why not the American TV public? (According to the Nielsen rating system, which is another story.) Surprise, surprise - I have two ideas.

The first is: What is this show doing on at 9pm (most recently 10pm) on a Saturday night- part of a "thrillogy" series on the worst, I mean the worst viewing night of television? What should NBC have done? How about premiering it on a Sunday night opposite The X-Files, promoting it as "the show Fox wouldn't touch, from one of the producers of The X-Files." Come on, NBC. If you air a show, at least have the courage to believe in it: Move it to Saturday night when people know it exists. If it makes it, great. If it doesn't, at least you gave it the old college try. And now, for the second idea: In a word -- Marion.

The character of Marion, who is a college student with extraordinary supernatural abilities, is introduced to the audience in the very first episode. She is living in the college dorm and has encounters with the ghost of a young woman who died in the same room where Marion is now living. Her "encounters" attract a group called The Others and she is invited to join their special little "tea parties." She is very reluctant. No problem there. All the other characters and portrayal of them are so strong, that it is inconceivable to me that Julianne Nicholson who plays Marion can portray her character no better than a first year drama major in high school. It doesn?t help that her hair, makeup, and clothes are so nerdy looking and so bad that it actually annoys me to watch. The best episode of the series is the one where the character of Marion doesn't have any speaking lines for the first 35 minutes of the show. It's almost as if the people who cast the other (Others) characters were on the "other side" when they found her. Am I being too harsh? Wellllllll - let's see...nahhh.

There is, however, one possibility. Is the character of Marion supposed to be this nerdy, stupid looking and annoying? Knowing that the series is co produced by one of The X-Files co producers, I feel that time could have been set aside to develop the character of Marion. To see her grow from this annoying one-dimensional character into a three-dimensional full-fledged character would be great. But, alas, NBC didn't give it time, time to expand and to build the characters. Similarly, this happened last Fall over at Fox with the newest Chris Carter series Harsh Realm. TV audiences, as far as the programming department at Fox says, want quick character development, such as CBS's new show, Now and Again that was on opposite Harsh Realm and beat them strongly in the ratings.

For now, Julianne will go back to her rock-climbing hobby and talk to the ghosts and spirits about her next project, and I?ll send e-mail to the Sci-Fi channel to pick up this show and keep it in production. I hope you'll do the same. Just because the show is on the "other side," we all know it doesn't have to be an "eternal" move.

Thank you, and tune in next week for another episode.

Paul Rosenblum is a writer living in New York City. His TV is on 24 hours a day.

Got a problem? Email Paul at cinewebzine@hotmail.com