Review of Touch

First, the good:

• The premise is OK.

• They have people from other countries that actually speak their own native language.

• Looks like good production values.

• Nice intro music.

Then the bad:

• The show is in reality about a kid with super powers, but they try to give it a reasonable explanation, and make it scientific by including numbers. Just using random numbers every episode doesn't explain anything. One thing is saying that the kid sees patterns in nature that others don't. OK. But this makes him able to predict human actions, choices and the future? Not so much.

• The plot is weak. I mean really weak. Each episode has a very bad story with cheap coincidences, but they make you buy them because some number is present every time. And it's fate.

• After a while you learn that the kid is hurting because of some unbalanced equation in the universe (the Matrix Revolutions?). But the things that hurt him are mundane. Here are two examples from one of the last episodes: (1) A lesbian couple is tying to have a baby, but one of them doesn't really want to because of her carrier. (2) A man wants to do something that matters, but he just made it so that an old building can be demolished for profit. These are the great pains in the universe? How about wars, poverty, child abuse, torture or slavery? Those things don't hurt him, but a father and a daughter that don't talk much do? I don't buy that!

• Even though the show tries to be international it's still awfully American. Removing the 9/11 and Iraq themes would have made it more acceptable. Google "Blowback".

• Kiefer Sutherland overacts. I liked him in 24, he's terrible in this show. He's constantly panting. Even though he's standing still. And in every episode he says "Jake!" at least 100 times. It gets annoying after only a few episodes.

• The show has too many plot lines simultaneously. Like it has short attention span and constantly needs something new. But then it loses the overall plot to drive the series from episode to episode, except the "pain of the universe"-theme, mentioned above.

And finally the verdict:

Touch tries too hard and fails. It's not about super powers, though it includes them. It's not about mathematics or science, though it wants to. It's not a good drama, because most people only appear for one episode, and the ones that don't have zero character development. And it's not a thriller, because the most thrilling thing each episode is spotting a number somewhere so it all makes sense. So in the end what is it really all about? I say it's about fate. And that makes it a really bad show!