Surface: Episode 5

Did you know that you can track stuff with your computer? It's true! I'm not talking about just packages from Amazon, I'm talking about attaching some GPS doo-hickey to use a satellite to track something around the world. That's what Laura did tonight. Last week she tagged one of the sea monsters and tonight she tracked it via GPS and then she and Rich went to investigate it before it came ashore. The most advanced thing I can do with my computer is get it to make a little "bwwwwwwing!" sound when I have a new instant message. That's pretty awesome.

And this week I finally appreciated the whole "Miles and Phil are keeping a little monster as a secret pet like the kids in ET" plotline. If it didn't have that goofy plotline to offset the utter seriousness of the government conspiracy/sea monster/people dying around the globe story, the show might be too much to take. The scene in the supermarket tonight, with little Nim running around the aisles and the boys trying to catch it before Miles' shopping mom saw them, was pretty damn funny. I hope it doesn't turn out that the creature ends up helping Miles defeat the monsters. I mean, I'd rather Nim bite off his Miles' finger than touch it a la ET. 

I also like how the story is progressing slowly and realistically (OK, I mean as realistically as a show about sea monsters can be). As I said in previous weeks, I like how they didn't just throw the three main characters together and have them be superheroes defending the Earth. Miles has his story (hiding the little one w/Phil), Laura has her story (trying to get her job, or a better one, by getting one on film), and Rich's story, who lost his brother to one of the creatures and is now obsessed with finding out what's going on. Rich calls Laura tonight, because he knows she's seen them too, and their coming together felt very real and satisfying (though I'm sure Rich's wife wasn't too happy when he called her to tell her where he was and she heard Laura's wife in the background). The government finds out Laura is tracking the thing, and Cirko says that if Laura is hurt in anyway because she films the creatures and puts the film out on the news or on the web (Lee even uses the word "viral," a nice little touch to show the writers are hip to the web stuff), he's quitting the project. (That might turn out to be an interesting plot twist in later episodes.) Dozens of  people on a pier actually see and film the monster...but the piercing sound the monster emits destroys all the video and knocks out power in the city. No proof. Cirko wants Laura to work for him, because she's the only one who has tagged the creature.

Meanwhile, in a very Spielbergian moment, Nim comes back home to Miles. I guess pulling the nail out of its foot went a long way.

This is going along like a long miniseries, with each episode part of a longer story and not a "monster of the week" structure, and it's very involving and well done. It's a sci-fi show, but it's also a family drama. It's mysterious, but it's also funny. I can honestly say it's the only one of the new sci/horror shows that I feel has an endgame, and the only one that actually has a meaty story, a story where I want to see what happens next. I "enjoy" Threshold and Supernatural, quite a bit actually, but they're not in the same league (no pun intended) as Surface.