Past Life
Safety Rating: Use caution.
Friendly Rating: Middle school and older might enjoy it.
Quality Rating: Solidly meh.
Fox, preview tonight at 9 p.m., regularly Thursdays, 9 p.m. starting Feb. 11
Dr. Kate McGinn (Kelli Giddish) is a past-life regressionist. Price Whatley (Nicholas Bishop) is a cop with issues. Together, they help people experiencing past life traumas solve the murders of their former selves.
There’s some borderline language – the words crap and friggin’ are heard. The violence is implied and mostly seen through vague dream sequences – however, I wouldn’t put any money on things staying that way. There was no sex talk or evenly remotely sexy behavior in the pilot, but again, I wouldn’t count on it staying that way. There are too many sparks being forced between McGinn and Whatley, for one thing. And murder frequently involves sex, so….
Oddly enough, the reincarnation stuff is the easiest part to buy. Not that I’m a big believer in reincarnation. Actually, I don’t, but I’m willing to suspend my disbelief for the sake of the story. Alas, the real world parts of the story are so hard to buy, there’s no real point. I’m sorry, a 10-man SWAT team is not going to burst into the home of a suspect with tear gas cannisters just because they think he might be the killer of a teen-age boy’s former self.
Also, I have a lot of trouble with the way McGinn encourages her patients to re-live their past life memories. Any shrink with a shred of sense, let alone decency, provides some sort of safe space for patients dealing with psychic trauma. I just didn’t buy the way McGinn kept pushing her patient to trigger the memories.
And, ultimately, it just wasn’t that good or interesting. Whatley has a dead wife, whose death may or may not have been an accident – there are a couple scenes which seemed a little contradictory to me. McGinn has issues, but we don’t get to see them yet. Richard Schiff as the pair’s boss is completely wasted acting irascible about the skeptical cop. Not that Schiff doesn’t do irascible beautifully. But he can do so much more.
On the other hand, it wasn’t that bad, either. Just serviceable.
