Action
Touted as edgy, adult, and mature, ACTION is you average FOX sitcom with some extra bleeped out vulgarity added to the mix. Don't get me wrong, it's a good show and appears to follow a large story line or arc spanning across multiple episodes.
There are just several small problems that take away from the series. The first and largest is the appearance. The film stock used it too clean and clear. It just doesn't look right. It's too bright and sharp. Remember BRIMSTONE's dark moody blue-stained appearance?
The sets are also on the bad side. Simply put, they look like sets. They have no character, but really look just like walls and rooms set up to make a TV show. They are too bright and bare. They lack believable and reality.
Let me speak of the series's main chara... Peter Dragon of DragonFire Productions. Let me describe him for you. He's more of an anti-hero than a hero. He's a bad guy. The best way to put it is he's a cross between Ned (from FOX's short-lived NED & STACEY) and Jim Profit (from FOX's even-shorter-lived PROFIT). It seems that series which follow such characters are prone to cancellation, although NED & STACEY did end on a note which appeared to be planned and intentional. After all, the marriage contract was for two years.
So, if ACTION is given time and focus is placed in the story rather than fitting in more vulgarity, the sets are cluttered up a bit, and they switch to a cloudier film stock, ACTION may become something great.
And, if ACTION manages to survive cancellation, what will it become? Where will it go? Well, let's look at NED & STACEY and PROFIT. We'll follow the main chara, be it Peter Dragon, Ned Dorsey, or Jim Profit through their wheels-and-deals, pyramid schemes, and ever-more-elaborate webs of lies, until a single misplaced step leads them along a whirlwind path to their downfall.
Then, god rest their soul.
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Peter Tatara
9.25.1999
http://www.klink.net/~tatara/DFFQI.html