RINGER: impressions written LIVE

The opening scene is very dark and probably intended to invoke BtVS . . . but will anyone buy it?

So, now I know that SMG plays twin sisters Siobhan (pronounced SHOW-vahn) and Bridget. Bridget is a witness in an FBI murder investigation of a local crime lord and she's also a stripper & recovering addict. Siobhan is a wealthy socialite that, apparently lives in the beachside mansion that Julia Roberts escaped from in the hit thriller Sleeping With The Enemy. (Update: That beach house is a Hamptons get away and not the main dwelling, which is in NYC. But I saw that any echoes to Sleeping With The Enemy was a presage of what would come next.)

I also know that Nestor Carbonelle (Don't-accuse-me-of-wearing-eyeliner "Richard Alpert" from LOST) is the agent responsible for keeping Bridget safe before the trial.

Oh my goodness . . . the boat scene in the first act has graphic quality from approximately 1984. TERRIBLE! SMG has a history with working on the CW network and not always having the best quality Fx, but that was mostly in the first season of BtVS and things were better after that. Not at all acceptable in 2011, no matter the television network.

The boat scene set up the mysterious disappearance/death (?) of Siobahn and allowed Bridget to then assume her socialite twin's identity. This will allow her to escape even further from the reach of the crime lord she is supposed to testify against.

And the transitions between scenes is-- how shall I say? Nonexistent?!

(But things got better after a decidedly rough first 12 minutes. I wonder how than an episodic 52 minutes because there is the need for character introduction and plot exposition. And this show definitely needed that to set up the differences between the twins and all of those twists that got glossed over quickly in a regular hour of drama.)

It seems that mirrors will play a strong role in the visual clues of this show. (You know, because there are twins and all.) But the last season of LOST taught me to think that mirror images are clues of parallel worlds
and possible purgatorial side plots. Will THAT play a role in Ringer as the season progresses?

***

And then I started watching and trying to follow the plot twists. There were some definite rough spots in this first episode, but nothing terrible. And the story provided enough interesting drama and upcoming mystery to keep me come back for a few more episodes.

Channel: The CW
Night: Tuesday, debuted September 13th
Time: 9-10