E-ring continued to make the compelling uninteresting last night by focusing on Burundi, Africa and mounting tension between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes.
Sergeant Jocelyn Pierce, an African-American who works alongside Col. McNulty (Dennis Hopper) and JT (Benjamin Bratt) persuades JT to look into the matter, even though no one else at the Pentagon seems to care about it too much, claiming the military is short on bodies already and that America has no vested interest in the region. Noting that Africa is fast becoming the breeding ground for the next wave of terrorists and that ignoring it will only exacerbate the problem, JT eventually wins out and in the end a Hutu training camp gets bombed.
I tend to accuse shows of being formulaic, but I don't think sticking to a formula is really the problem here. The Law and Order franchise has stuck to a formula since the beginning, but the show is still fascinating to watch. E-ring, however, isn't. At one point JT is accused of talking down to one of his superiors by pontificating on the Africa problem as if he's giving "a junior high social studies lesson." The same could be said for the show, whose characters have no real depth and only serve as mouthpieces for whatever cliche, talking point, or soundbite is given to them. I'm not talking about pandering or using the show to push a certain political viewpoint, which I couldn't care less about, I'm talking about not giving any of the characters even a shred of complexity. There are moments, such as last week's episode in which McNulty was charged with sexual harassment, where I thought maybe the storyline would stretch through several episodes, revealing things about McNulty's past and adding some new dimensions to the character, but the problem was resolved by the end, just as every problem is, dashing whatever hopes I had for the character and the series. The Pentagon itself may run like a gigantic perpetual machine, but so does E-Ring. That kind of rote approach, however, never makes for good television.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-14-2005 @ 1:27PM
Edgar said...
I'm still very much enjoying the show but I have to admit that everything getting resolved by the end of the show is getting a little old. We could definitely use a few continuing storylines. Unfortunately I doubt the show will last long enough to develop one.
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10-14-2005 @ 1:33PM
Alex said...
Lets not focus on the fact that the show brings up a very poignant and timely debate, that Africa is NOT on the top of our political agenda... lets instead focus on a television formula. The one you refer to as "rote".
Maybe it's true that you just plain don't like shows that are wrapped up in an hour or 1/2, depending on the genre. But it sounds to me, like YOU want to invest in a serial drama, one that extends character archs over a series of episodes. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and everyone has their own likes and dislikes, but your disparaging remarks about a show that is pushing the envelope in both topic and content is just plain amateur. If you want to debate on what "television" is, and how it show be formatted, then write a disertation, not a review.
The "Tribes" episode wasn't my favorite of this series so far, but it didn't seem to me to be what current television is all about either. Maybe I was expecting more action, less serious discussion. But once I invested, it really pulled on my heart strings, to watch a family almost go through another tragedy, similar to what happened in Rwanda. Our country is now being forced to examine the rest of the world because now more than ever, situations abroad (ie. Burundi, Africa) are landing on our doorstep. The world is getting smaller.
Tell me, what show on tv right now is asking these sorts of questions?
Oh yeah, I'm sorry you don't have the guts to keep a response I posted about your first review of ERing. But did however keep those opinions that seemed to agree with your negativity. I didn't use foul language, I simply disagreed... and called you out for trashing how it "really" works in the Pentagon, when you've never probably even been to our Nations Capital.
If you're going to continue to use the internet as a public forum, how about being man or woman enough to leave up replies that don't coincide with your narrow minded point of view.
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10-15-2005 @ 2:48AM
TheMovieGoer said...
E-Ring and Criminal Minds are the 2 best new shows of the season.
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11-17-2005 @ 7:32AM
Robin said...
Please any 1 know the song on the 11/16 episode of E Ring?? was at the end??
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