Serialized TV and the joy of Haven

                

              The template for television shows and other serialized mediums, like comic books, has been to provide a “pick it up and put it down” type of storytelling.  It didn’t matter if you hadn’t read last month’s Justice League comic because there was a “catch up” page a the beginning of the book.  For TV shows, the theme song and credit sequence worked to introduce a new audience to all of the characters they would need to know to enjoy tonight’s episode.  Shows that can do this well can have an infinite life in reruns and syndication.  We’ve all watched reruns of Gilligan’s Island and The Brady Bunch and enjoyed the simplicity of the storytelling.  Even modern classics like The Simpsons and Law and Order follow this format.  You could enjoy an episode of either of those shows from any time in their 20-year run.

                The flip side of this coin are heavily serialized shows, where the viewer is expected to make a commitment to watch all, or almost all, of the episodes in order if they want to enjoy the story.  The two classic examples of this type are soap operas and professional wrestling.  Kitsch value aside, no one would want to watch an entire twenty-year-old episode of Days of our Lives or Monday Night Raw today.     

What?  You don't remember Men on a Mission and their rapping manager Oscar?

Not quite as scary out-of-context

                I’m sure it’s not the first, but my first exposure to a hybrid show that combined serialized storytelling with “one-and-done” stories, was the X-Files.  I was late to join the X-Files, because when it started I was in high school and rarely had time to watch TV.  I started watching with my college buddies in the fourth season, because I happened to be in the room while they were watching the infamous “Home” episode where Mulder and Scully run afoul of a family of inbred monsters. This was a great stand-alone episode, but I soon tired of having my buddies spend 20 minutes explaining everything I was seeing and the jokes I was missing.  In today’s age of DVR and pausing live TV, it wouldn’t have been an issue, but back then it was a real pain.

                With the exception of Law and Order, most TV dramas today are expected to offer a serialized storyline and character development along with a “monster-of-the-week.”  And shows are constantly balancing the two.  Some shows fall heavy on a serialized plot, like Lost, others go lighter, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (at least in the first two years when I watched).  Most shows that I enjoy seem to transform over time from a “monster-of-the-week” format to a more serialized one.  Some good examples of this are Dollhouse, Castle, Fringe, and finally the subject of this review, Haven.

                Haven is supposedly based on a novel by Steven King called The Colorado Kid.  But it only shares one basic plot point and a few character names.  Haven is about FBI agent Audrey Parker who arrives in a town called Haven, Maine.  There she meets police officer Nathan Wuornos who, oddly, has no sense of touch.  She learns from Nathan that some of the people in Haven are afflicted by Troubles.  People who are Troubled have supernatural powers they often cannot understand or control.  These powers often hurt or kill the people around them.  Sometimes the Troubled are evil, but usually they are trying not to inflict harm on anyone.  Parker is not affected by people’s Troubles, so often she can help them.   Parker’s FBI boss tells her she should stay in Haven for a while and try to help the people there. 

Lookit how mysterious and
dangerous he is.

There are only three other characters who are in every show.  Duke Crocker is a smuggler, restaurateur, and all-around sneaky guy.  Of course Audrey kinda falls for him to create a love triangle with upstanding Nathan.  Vince and Dave are brothers who run the local newspaper.  They’ve been around for a long time and have seen times of the Troubles before, so they provide a lot of information for Audrey.  All of these characters have their secrets that they are keeping from Audrey, and sometimes from the audience.

Haven is a show that strikes a perfect balance of the two plot types.  Every episode has some new character that has some sort of Trouble that Audrey and Nathan need to help.  But the overarching mystery leaks out around the seams.  In the first half of season one it was almost exclusively “monster-of-the-week” but by the end of the second season the serialized story has taken center stage.  You could start watching Haven in reruns tomorrow and be able to enjoy 90% of the show.  It is action packed, fast paced, very well acted, and the special effects are almost always good for a TV show.  However, it is worth your time to go back and watch the episodes from the beginning to see how it started and how masterfully the show runner and writers  give out little bits of info at a time.  I'd love to talk about it more, but I don't want to spoil anything.  By the end of the second season you will be fully invested in the characters and love the twists and turns the writers put them through. 

Fortunately it is not 1994 anymore and it is easy to get a hold of a DVD of Season 1 on Netflix.  Season 2 just finished (it’s a summer show), so the DVD will be out eventually, plus it’s certainly available on reruns and marathons.  You could probably skip most of season 1 and jump in with episode 10 which is where things really start to get good.  Of course you'll be missing a lot of the introduction if you do. Right now it looks like they are all up on youtube as well, so you can check them out there.  Here's a link to the first one, along with an embed.  

An imbed of episode 10 for all of you impatient people.