In my last Big Hollywood column, I waxed nostalgic over old television series but there is one modern drama that I wish had not bitten the dust so soon after debuting. That it was cancelled was probably inevitable and I’m not so sure that poor ratings were the decisive factor for its cancellation by the TV programmers. 

“Eleventh Hour” starring Rufus Sewell was a remake of the British series with the same name that starred Patrick Stewart. The protagonist is a brilliant government scientist who investigates the experimental perils of modern science. Sewell plays an American scientist working for the FBI and Stewart worked for the Home Office. I found Stewart’s character, Ian Hood, to be somewhat arrogant and dismissive while Sewell’s Dr. Jacob Hood was far more soft spoken and likable.   

I also found that every episode led me to the Internet to see how accurate the premise was. Did you know that in some cases, heavy water reduces certain tumors? It can also be used to make things go boom-boom but this was just one of the many fascinating bits culled from the series.  (more…)

As noted in my previous articles on the CBS TV mystery-drama series Eleventh Hour (here, here and here), the show consistently presents interesting, intelligent, and fair-minded discussions of science issues in a dramatic (if often far-fetched) context. In addition, the show doesn’t portray business as the catch-all villain, giving a much more balanced range of motives and miscreants.

Thursday night’s episode, “Medea,” ended the program’s first season on a high note in terms of the ideas and attitudes it expressed. FBI science consultant Jacob Hood (Rufus Sewell) investigates the case of a woman who appears to be suffering from delusions caused by schizophrenia. (more…)

A good many people will watch the final episode of NBC’s long-running drama series ER tonight, given the show’s popularity over the years. I, however, will be watching something else: the season-ending episode of the CBS-TV mystery-drama series Eleventh Hour. I recommend that you do likewise, and that you catch the show when CBS reruns it in the coming months or watch them online at the show’s website.

Based on a smug, scientistic, and politically left BBC series of recent vintage, the CBS version of Eleventh Hour is a rather interesting program from the standpoint of the ideas it presents, and, wonder of wonders, is usually fair to both sides of the scientific controversies dealt with in the story lines.

The show manages to avoid the temptation to adopt facile attitudes that make for easy answers to complex problems, and its producers also refuse to indulge in the too-easy presentation of science as good and religion as a dangerous force impeding the unalloyed benefits of science. They recognize that science doesn’t have all the answers and that religion has a valid place in human life. In that regard the show is far superior to its BBC predecessor. (more…)