Off-Target

My TV guilty pleasure for last year was "Human Target" on FOX.

It was a hokey show about "Christopher Chance", an ex-assassin who turned his life around to become an uber-bodyguard/life-fixer along with his ex-cop buddy Winston and his psychotic ex-assassin buddy Guerrero.

The show was silly, but fun. The dialog was clever. The interactions didn't feel forced. The action flowed well. The dynamics between the dudes was organic and gave them well-defined roles.

It was a little excessive in testosterone (no main-cast female characters), but the show didn't seem to suffer too much for the lack, given the subject matter.

The episode direction was pretty good. Episodes started with a scene in the middle of the story, then flipped back to events leading into that scene, followed by a conclusion to the events and an epilog.

It's a formula that works really well.

The filming style, lighting, and such had an "adventure movie" feel to it.

And there was the music.

Bear McCreary (the composer for "Battlestar Galactica", "The Sarah Connor Chronicles", and other shows) did epic scores for each episode using a 40-piece live orchestra that livened the episodes to call back classics like John Williams' "Indiana Jones" scores, among other things.

Each episode in the first season played out like a well-done action movie.

It wasn't Shakespeare by any stretch of the imagination, but it was fun.

Season two started in the autumn of 2010.

And there were changes.

FOX just can't seem to leave stuff alone. When they have a show that works, they just have to fuck around with it so the formula is no longer sustainable. They didn't make an exception with "Human Target".

They replaced the showrunner and expanded the cast to give more of a female presence.

I don't object to the latter. I felt the show could have done well with a strong female star or two, but I can't say I'm overwhelmed with their choices in season two.

The show's story evolved a bit so Chance, Winston, and Guerrero now work for a billionaire lady by the name of Ilsa Pucci. Also joining their number is a young thief by the name of Ames.

The character of Ilsa Pucci is my objection. The character comes off as a whiny, wet-blanket with contrived issues regarding how Chance and company do their bodyguard/life-saving thing. The actress is fine, but the character is an abomination and easily in the top two reason for why this show's quality has slid so quickly.

The other character - Ames - is less of a problem. Her criminal past mixes well with the other "working" characters. She's a bit more of a cliche sexpot, which is unfortunate for any kind of credibility the writers might want to give the character, but it's not like the other characters aren't caricatures of some sort.

The episodes no longer do the "jump in the middle, then backtrack to show how they got there" formula but instead go with a more linear method of telling the individual stories that makes each episode more bland somehow.

They've done something with the direction and filming that gives it a blander flavor as well. I can't quite put my finger on what it is.

Except for the music.

So in the grand tradition of cost-cutting, FOX opted not to bring Bear McCreary back for season two. They went with some banal crap composer who injects a lot of pop or R&B garbage in as music instead of McCreary's more epic, sweeping scores.

Apparently FOX didn't want to cough up for an orchestra doing unique compositions for each episode. I suppose that's pricey for a TV show.

In any event, the music change is the second most telling problem with season two. It's really noticeable. It's amazing how much the music enhanced season one.

I'm trying really hard to like season two of "Human Target", but FOX is making it pretty difficult. My guilty pleasure has a lot less pleasure in it.