Don't you just hate it when you get hooked on a show and it's yanked unceremoniously off the air, leaving you hanging into infinity? Yeah, me, too. Such was the case with Surface, an alien-sea-monster-inspired drama that aired on NBC during the 2005-2006 season.The series starred the soulful Lake Bell as Laura Daughtery, a marine biologist who encounters a strange creature on the ocean floor. She writes up her report, only to have it confiscated by the government in the name of national security.
Meanwhile, nerdy teen Miles (Carter Jenkins, whom I predict has a huge career ahead of him, though not if he keeps signing on for shows like the short-lived Viva Laughlin) stumbles across a strange egg on the beach and takes it home. Imagine his surprise when out hatches a weird amphibious creature that emits an even weirder electrical current.
The little guy, whom Miles names Nim (short for Nimrod), starts running around the house and neighborhood, sending Miles into a major freak-out. He doesn't realize there are lots of other Nims in the ocean, and they may not be as gentile as little Nim.
One of those is encountered by Rich Connelly (Jay R. Ferguson), a good-natured family man who goes diving with his brother one day. Tragedy strikes when his brother hooks a big Nim with a harpoon and is dragged deep into the ocean, never to be heard from again. Rich becomes obsessed with the incident and ends up alienating his family to get at the truth.
Alien sea creatures, freaky meteor showers, government conspiracies, and regular folks swept into an intriguing mystery made Surface one of the best sci-fi shows in recent years. Sadly, the final episode ended with our heroes stranded in a church-top steeple room, while down below, a flooded city swarmed with sea creatures.
Sure, the one and only season of Surface is on DVD now, but someone please, please, please make a movie and give some closure to this travesty!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
4-11-2008 @ 2:09PM
gyzmette said...
I totally agree. Surface was well written & the weekly cliffhangers kept me tuning in week after week. I'm sure that NBC knew it wasn't coming back when they filmed the season finale, so leaving us hanging like that was rude.
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4-11-2008 @ 2:10PM
Davin Peterson said...
I liked this show and was disappointed when NBC canceled it. The final episode ended in a cliff hanger. We never knew what happened to the city after it flooded or if Miles reunited with his parents.
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4-11-2008 @ 2:34PM
Christian said...
Why do you have to rip up old wounds?! I just had forgotten about it and made my peace... ;-)
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4-11-2008 @ 2:34PM
Grover said...
I loved this show as well and was very saddened to see it off the air... well not see it on the air anymore and vanish as if it never happened.
A movie to wrap things up would be great... it was certainly the best of the 3 sci-fi shows (with it's writing, characters, and intrigue) that debuted at the time (threshold and invasion... i think)
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4-11-2008 @ 2:48PM
Katie said...
Jane -
Hate to be the grammar nerd, but I don't think you meant to use the word "gentile". That can either mean non-Jewish, or Pagan, and if used correctly, it is always capitalized. I think you intended to use its' near-homonym "genteel" (pron. jhen-TEEL), which is comes from the French word for polite/gentle.
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4-11-2008 @ 4:32PM
Mimi said...
Thank you Katie - I too wanted to ask Jane if she thought Nim was actually 'non-Jewish' !!! Perhaps she meant genteel as you mentioned or even gentle (spell-check doesn't differentiate).
4-11-2008 @ 3:01PM
Oreo said...
Are you people out of your mind? Well written? Yeah as well written as a Godzilla movie, same with the acting.
It was a fun pointless sci-fi show to watch. I wish they had the last 5 episodes (they ended with 17) because I would have loved to see what the world thought after the floor and after she was correct about everything.
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4-12-2008 @ 12:08AM
Lenny said...
I agree that it wasn't a "well written" show, as in it wouldn't win any awards, but as you said it was a fun show. I think that's exactly what it was supposed to be and it did a great job of being just that.
I have to go along with everyone else and say I would really have liked to see a wrap-up of the storyline, but we can just add it to the mounting pile of shows cancelled without closure. And the network suits constantly wonder why viewership is dropping.
4-11-2008 @ 3:10PM
david.charles said...
ditto for Invasion
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4-11-2008 @ 3:44PM
loudalmaso said...
What I liked about Surface (and why I preferred it to Threshold or Invasion) was that unlike the other shows that only hinted at a conspiracy or were very slow to reveal parts of the mysteries, Surface had at least one scene each week where you go "did I just see what I think I saw?"
A buddy at the time said "Dude last night on Invasion, this guy was actin' creepy..." and I'm like "last night on MY show, three folks got their boat eaten by a freakin' SEA MONSTER!!
4-11-2008 @ 4:56PM
jon said...
Yet another decent show which left us all in the lurch with a major cliffhanger...
I too had almost forgotten about Surface... Although my go-to example of a show which was never given a proper ending is still John Doe.
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4-11-2008 @ 5:04PM
Will said...
I just watched the first season on DVD. I thought it was okay,but not that great. I would've kept watching out of loyalty if nothing else. Some closure would be nice though.
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4-11-2008 @ 5:28PM
Leah said...
I didn't realize this show didn't have a real ending when I bought the dvds from amazon last week. (it was only like 15 bucks) I watched it when it started, but there were so many sci-fi shows that year (the others I remember were threshold and invasion) that it was hard to keep up with everything.
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4-11-2008 @ 6:07PM
Ed U Kator said...
There ought to be a law, "If you know a series is going to get canceled it cannot end in a cliff hanger."
I live in Puerto Rico, what has me worried it that since the giant flood occurred is my mountain home now beach front property? Do I have to worry the Nims and the Chupacabra? What if they form some type of alliance? ;)
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4-11-2008 @ 6:43PM
mj said...
I'm STILL bummed about that show. Surface, Invasion and Threshold were my favorite shows that year, and every one is gone. Grrrrr. I need to know what happened! About all I can do is read fan fiction, or write my own story line. I look at the shows still on and shake my head.
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4-11-2008 @ 9:24PM
MAC said...
Sad, sad, sad. Threshold never grabbed me, but Surface (aside from being filmed in Wilmington, just a couple hours from where I live) was at least able to generate a genuine sense of suspense every week, and make you care about the characters. Now those characters are forever frozen in time, unable to give us the closure we need.
The only thing sadder is the cancellation of Journeyman.
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4-11-2008 @ 9:50PM
Joe said...
I hate this it seems like every show I watch gets canned . I liked Surface I also enjoyed Invasion. Yet both are no more. I also liked Journey Man and Traveler. I hate this so much I really wish Network shows would just let shows last more then one season. Because next season there will be new shows people will start to like those shows too. Then they get canceled. So then it starts all over again.
So I just would like to see network shows let there shows come out for another season. Plus I would like to see the network also market there shows more and not ones people are already watching too.
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4-11-2008 @ 11:00PM
nick said...
I agree, this show was good but not great.
My biggest problem was probably the casting of Lake Bell. She was just too wooden and unbelievable in the role she was given here.
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4-12-2008 @ 12:10AM
Lenny said...
I think the main, if not only, reason they cast Lake Bell is because she looked good in a bikini, which she seemed to spend a good bit of time wearing. :o)
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4-12-2008 @ 3:10AM
Will said...
Joe, I agree with you on Journeyman & Travler. I didn't watch Surface, but I did start watching Invasion & Threshold, both of which got cancelled too. That's why I, and any other people I'm sure, will not start watching new network shows any longer. It's not fun to start liking something & then it gets pulled. I'll spend my time on Usa & FX's shows, at least they don't usually cancel them before they even get a chance to tell the story. The networks can rot for all I care. The only risky show they've given a chance lately is Lost & that's because it started out huge in the ratings. Had it not, it'd be gone too.
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